<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGoa does not need smart meters. This \u20b9900 crore rollout is nothing but a scam to burden people with higher electricity bills.\u201d \u2013 Valmiki Naik<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201dEven after public opposition and repeated exposure of this scam, BJP is still trying to forcibly impose smart meters on Goans.\u201d \u2013 Valmiki Naik<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Goa Khabar:Aam Aadmi Party Goa State President Valmiki Naik, along with party leaders Mohd Aslam and Shyam Kolamkar and volunteers, strongly resisted the forced installation of smart meters by the Electricity Department at Madhuban Apartments, St. Inez, after residents raised objections over the replacement of their existing electricity meters.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n AAP had consistently opposed the smart meter rollout in Goa, exposing a \u20b9900 crore scam being pushed by the BJP government at the cost of ordinary consumers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n AAP President Valmiki Naik stated that Goa already has functional digital meters and there is no public need for smart meters that could lead to increased billing burdens on households. He further said that When party leaders questioned the workers carrying out the installation, they claimed permission had been obtained from the housing society management. He strongly rejected this justification and said no housing society or management committee has any authority to permit the replacement of an individual consumer\u2019s electricity meter without the consent of the consumer. Valmiki Naik further stated that electricity meters are installed under a direct agreement between the consumer and the Electricity Department, and therefore no private body can authorise trespass or forced replacement of well-functioning meters. He said the BJP government is misusing administrative channels to impose a project that people have repeatedly opposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added that smart meters introduce prepaid systems and time-based billing structures which could sharply increase electricity charges for consumers. At a time when people are already facing reduced incomes and rising living costs, the government is adding further pressure by attempting to impose a costly and unnecessary system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Resistance turned tense during a heated confrontation between AAP leaders and Electricity Department employees present at the site. Amid the commotion, AAP leader Aslam suffered a cardiac incident, creating panic among residents and party workers. He was immediately attended to and provided necessary assistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AAP strongly condemned the high-handed behaviour of authorities and complete insensitivity toward the concerns of residents. The party stated that instead of addressing public objections transparently, the government is trying to force implementation through intimidation and backdoor methods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n AAP has demanded an immediate halt to the smart meter installation drive across Goa and called upon the government to scrap the project entirely. The party reiterated that it will continue to stand with citizens and resist every anti-people policy designed to burden Goans financially.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cGoa does not need smart meters. This \u20b9900 crore rollout is nothing but a scam to burden people with higher electricity bills.\u201d \u2013 Valmiki Naik \u201dEven after public opposition and repeated exposure of this scam, BJP is still trying to forcibly impose smart meters on Goans.\u201d \u2013 Valmiki Naik Goa Khabar:Aam Aadmi Party Goa State […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25169,"featured_media":111697,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[155,6],"tags":[3794,38],"class_list":["post-111696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-155","category-6","tag-featured","tag-goa"],"read":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/25169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=111696"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":111698,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111696\/revisions\/111698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/111697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=111696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=111696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goakhabar.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=111696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}