BRS leader and former Minister for Energy G. Jagadish Reddy showing the UDAY document, which, according to him, disproved the government false propaganda on smart meter installation.
The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) on Sunday reacted strongly to what it termed as attempts by the government to spread “misinformation” from the floor of the Assembly about installation of power-consumption meters on agricultural connections.
Addressing a press conference here, former Minister for Energy and BRS MLA G. Jagadish Reddy, party leaders Md. Mahmood Ali, T. Ravinder Rao (both MLCs), Balka Suman and K. Vasudeva Reddy alleged that the Congress came to power by spreading misinformation and that it was continuing the same tactic even after coming to power.
Mr. Jagadish Reddy alleged that both Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramarka Mallu misquoted the memorandum of understanding (MoU) for Ujjwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY) entered with the Centre in 2017. He alleged that they read out only a part of a sentence that mentioned the meter installation and made their friendly media house publish the wrong information.
He said that page number seven of the MoU clearly mentioned that their government had agreed for “installation of smart meters to all consumers other than agricultural connections”. The agreement was that smart meters would be installed for connections consuming over 500 units of energy a month by December 31, 2018 and those consuming over 200 units a month by December 31, 2019.
The Chief Minister, however, misled the House by stating that the KCR government had agreed in 2017 itself for installation of meters to agricultural connections.
The former Minister said that the BRS government did not agree for the installation of meters to farm connections, irrespective of several offers given by the Centre as it treated farmers’ interests paramount.
He asked Mr. Revanth Reddy to show agricultural connections with meters anywhere in the State. He said even Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in a press conference earlier this year that Telangana did not agree for installation of meters to agricultural connections despite the offer of FRBM Act relaxation.
