Left parties stage dharna at SPDCL corporate office

Tirupati: Intensifying their stir against ‘Smart Meters’, the left parties including CPM, CPI and IFTU jointly held a protest at SPDCL corporate office here on Monday.

The activists, holding placards and banners, came in a rally, raised slogans and demanded withdrawal of smart meters. Later they staged a dharna at SPDCL office.

Addressing the gathering, CPI national Secretary K Narayana said introduction of smart meters proposed by the State-run power distribution companies will add more burden on poor farmers and middleclass families, who were already facing difficulty with increased power charges.

‘The TDP before coming to power assured to stop introducing smart meters, which was proposed by the previous YSRCP government and N Chandrababu Naidu even went to the extent of declaring that they will smash smart meters if the government introduces it. But after coming to power, the same TDP and Chandrababu Naidu vigorously going ahead with introducing smart meters ignoring the protest from the people,’ he pointed out.

He added that this clearly shows that the TDP following the same policies of the YSRCP benefitting the corporates but not the people. CPM district secretary V Nagaraju said the TDP government is keen on introducing smart meters, to benefit Adani and others only. He further said the coalition government assured to cancel power purchasing agreement before coming to power, but after coming to power, it continued the agreement to benefit corporates at the cost of poor people. The left leaders warned the State government that people will teach a lesson if they didn’t stop smart meters.