Dr. Krishnasamy, the founder and president of the Puthiya Tamilagam Katchi, on Saturday criticized the DMK government’s plan to convert digital meters to smart meters, claiming that the move will lead to corruption in the purchase of new meters.
Dr Krishnasamy said, in a press release issued on July 3,” When we were wondering why the Tamil Nadu government has not started any plan that may lead to corruption, Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji announced that digital meters will be replaced with smart meters in Tamil Nadu. The measure, according to the Electricity Minister, will help the department avoid a 900-crore loss.”
Dr. Krishnasamy went on to say that the energy department’s 900 crore loss was caused by long-running corruption in the power generation sector, and not by digital meters.
He goes on to explain that importing inferior coal at exorbitant rates, as well as purchasing and using substandard transformers and spare parts, are all contributing to the sector’s corruption.
While explaining that there is no difference between digital meters and smart meters, he said,” For the past few years, digital meters have been fitted to all users, including homes, businesses, and factories. Now DMK government has said that they will use ‘smart meters’ instead of digital meters to minimize the sudden loss of Rs 900 crore in the power sector. But, the minister has failed to understand that smart meter is also a digital meter and there is no big fundamental difference between the two.”
He concluded by adding that the DMK government should not confuse people between smart meters and digital meters, and the move will result in huge amounts of money being wasted.
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