Farmers in Andhra Pradesh have decided to step up their protest against smart meters as the YSR Congress Party government is determined to install the meters on over 18 lakh farm pump sets across the State, said Samyukta Kisan Morcha Prakasam district convenor Ch. Ranga Rao.
He said the installation of the meters would turn out to be a ‘‘hangman’s noose’‘ for farmers in rain-fed areas and a ‘‘political waterloo’‘ for the ruling YSRCP. Farmers in Rapthadu and Somendapalli mandals in Anantapur district had taken the lead in removing the smart meters fixed by officials, he said, after felicitating farmers’ leaders M. Girish, R. Chandrasekhar, C. Nagaraju, B. Nagamuthyalu, Raja Rami Reddy, V. Kiran, C. Mallikarjun and A. Kattamaiah from the drought-prone district.
‘’The cost of electricity a unit is expected to go up to ₹20 in the future as the Jagan Mohan Reddy government encourages private power producers,’‘ said Mr. Girish. This when farmers were being forced to increase the capacity of their electric pump sets yearly owing to the fall in groundwater level.
‘’The installation of smart meters is part of the move to dilute the free-power scheme and reduce the subsidy burden of the government,” said Andhra Pradesh Rythu Sangam leader Chandrasekhar.
As the farmers sink borewells to a depth of up to 1,000 ft. in drought-prone areas, farming could not be practised if the subsidies were done away with in a phased manner, as part of the power-sector reforms done at the behest of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre, said Mr. Nagaraju.
Mallikarjun, another farmers’ leader, saw a big scam in the purchase of smart meters and alleged that meters worth ₹9,000 had been purchased at an inflated cost of over ₹30,000 each.
