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HomeHealthOpposition alleges ₹7,500-crore scam in awarding contract for procuring smart electricity meters

Opposition alleges ₹7,500-crore scam in awarding contract for procuring smart electricity meters

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Opposition alleges ₹7,500-crore scam in awarding contract for procuring smart electricity meters

Minister for Energy K.J. George in the Legislative Assembly in Bengaluru on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:

Opposition alleges ₹7,500-crore scam in awarding contract for procuring smart electricity meters

C.N. Ashwath Narayan, BJP member, speaking in the Legislative Assembly in Bengaluru on Thursday.
| Photo Credit:

Alleging that irregularities to the tune of ₹7,500 crore had taken place in the awarding of contracts for procuring smart electricity meters, BJP MLA C.N. Ashwath Narayan on Thursday demanded the cancelling of the contract and constitution of a House committee to probe the alleged irregularities.

Raising the issue during the debate on the State Budget in the Assembly, Dr. Ashwath Narayan alleged that there were several lapses with respect to awarding of the contract for procurement of nearly 39 lakh smart meters.

Instead of directly procuring from manufacturers, the contract had been awarded to a supplier, because of which the cost of the smart meter got escalated, he alleged. Also, a blacklisted company had been chosen to provide software support for smart meters, he alleged.

He alleged that Bescom had made it mandatory that those seeking temporary power connection and new connection have to install smart meters, though the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (KERC) guidelines had prescribed that smart meters should be made mandatory only for the temporary connection.

Similarly, the Central Electricity Authority guidelines had made it clear that smart meters should be made mandatory only for temporary connections while it could be made mandatory for new connections only when all the existing meters were replaced by smart meters, the BJP member maintained.

Energy Minister K.J. George had, a couple of days ago, given a written reply to a call attention notice stating that installing smart meters was mandatory only for the temporary connection and it was optional for new connections, he said. Disputing this, Mr. George said, he would go through the issue and make a detailed reply on Friday and assured the House that he was ready to cancel the contract of software company if it was really blacklisted.



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