Tura MDC Bernard N Marak has accused the state power utility and Meghalaya government of fleecing the rural poor with high electricity bills that they can ill afford.
The state vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that the central government, led by his party, has created the Saubhagya scheme to help provide electricity to poor families in rural areas but in Meghalaya the same people the scheme is meant to help are reeling under exorbitant bills from the utility.
“Bills have become a means to extort money from them, the poor families in rural areas,” Marak said today.
Smart meters being installed under the scheme are being introduced without permission from the villagers, who lose their traditional meters when the smart ones are installed and it is these that are leading to higher bills, the MDC said.
Describing this as an “indirect” tax, Marak said that the state is victimising the rural poor.
“The way the bills are being slapped on the poor families, it looks like full-fledged exploitation and looting of the simple-minded tribals,” he added.
In some villages families receive exorbitant bills without electricity connection while homes in other villages are still being slapped with high bills even though they went without power for long stretches, Marak claimed.
“Some widows complained of receiving bills as high as Rs 3,500 to Rs 5,000 per month. The state government should stop imposing such exorbitant rates on the poor in the guise of bills. Poor villagers use electricity as a necessity, not as a luxury,” he said.
