Rajasthan Villagers Protest Smart Meters Over Fear of Prepaid Electricity Bills

Hanumangarh, Rajasthan: In Rajasthan’s Hanumangarh district, a government push to install smart electricity meters has met with resistance from residents. 

Touted as “modern” devices, these meters transmit real-time data, eliminate reading errors, and promise transparent billing, according to the Rajasthan Department of Information and Public Relations. 

The push to replace traditional meters with smart ones began in early July 2025 in Hanumangarh district, under the Central Government’s Restructured Distribution Area Scheme (RDSS), a plan initiated in 2023 during the then Congress-led state government to make smart meters mandatory across all districts.

But the rollout has sparked widespread anger and anxiety among villagers, especially poor labourers and farmers. 

Wherever company employees from Genus Metering Communication Private Limited arrive to install the devices, they are turned away. The first protest erupted in Bihari Colony, Hanumangarh Junction, after just five smart meters were installed. Within days, resistance spread across villages and towns, bringing installation work to a standstill.

Protesters have gathered outside power offices and government buildings, chanting slogans and demanding that the meters not be installed in their homes. During one demonstration outside the District Collectorate, this reporter witnessed hundreds chanting slogans in protest. 

Hanumangarh district has 4.6 lakh registered electricity connections, including 3.75 lakh domestic users. Despite awareness drives, only about 200 smart meters have been installed so far, according to Superintendent Engineer RS Charan of the Electricity Department.

The main reason for opposition, villagers say, is fear of a shift to prepaid billing. 

Shivkumar Mandal (56), a labourer from Bihari Basti, said, “Right now they’re installing smart meters, but soon they’ll make them prepaid. We earn and eat daily. If we don’t get work for two days, how will we recharge electricity?”

Notably, smart meters can operate in either postpaid or prepaid mode. Currently, all Hanumangarh connections are postpaid, and new meters are being installed in this mode. However, distribution companies can switch meters to prepaid remotely via software updates, just like changing a mobile phone connection from postpaid to prepaid.

See Also: Power of protest fails to light up lives in this Rajasthan village

‘Electricity will no longer be a right’

For Advocate Raghuveer Verma of the All India Agricultural Labour Union, the opposition to smart metres is more than just a technical concern, it is a threat to basic rights. 

He called it a socio-economic issue. 

“Smart meters will create a crisis for the poor, labourers, single women and the elderly. Once electricity becomes recharge-based, it will no longer be a right but a purchasable commodity,” he said. Installing them without public hearings or consent, he added, goes against the spirit of public representation.

Chandrakala Verma, former state president of the All India Democratic Women’s Association, warned that a shift to prepaid billing would disrupt daily life: “The moment electricity goes out, children’s studies, cooking and household work will come to a halt. It’s a direct attack on the quality of life of the poor.”

Residents also point to the practical difficulties of paying upfront. Mandal, a warehouse loader who has lived in Bihari Basti for 40 years, said, “We somehow manage to pay monthly bills now. If delayed, we pay penalties or in installments. But with prepaid, electricity will stop the moment the balance runs out. Even a bulb won’t light.”

Consumer rights groups have similar worries. Liaqat Ali, secretary of the Jodhpur-based Upbhokta Margdarshan Samiti, alleges that smart meters are a way for power companies to recover massive financial losses by overcharging consumers.

According to data tabled in Rajasthan Assembly in January 2024, electricity corporations in Ajmer, Jodhpur and Jaipur — along with transmission and generation companies — recorded losses of Rs 8,824.43 crore, taking their total net loss to Rs 1,10,655 crore in 2022-’23 alone.

“First, they’ll install smart meters, then convert them to prepaid. Consumption will drop, companies will buy less power, and homes that can’t recharge will be left in the dark,” Ali said. 

He blames the crisis on corruption and mismanagement, recalling that similar promises were made in 2002 when mechanical meters were replaced with electronic ones. “The meters work fine. The real issue is mismanagement. Companies blame the meters to cover their failures.”

Reports from other districts of inflated bills after smart meter installation have deepened distrust. Protesters in Hanumangarh often cite the case of Amiruddin Rangrez from Jobner in Jaipur district, who received a Rs 1.26 lakh bill for a locked house. Energy Minister Heeralal Nagar later said it was due to a wrong reading, not a fault in the meter. 

‘Postpaid gives us breathing space’

At present, all electricity connections in Hanumangarh are postpaid. Residents said this system gives them crucial breathing room: after receiving a bill, they have time to arrange money before the payment deadline. If they cannot pay in full, they can often negotiate with officials to pay in installments.

Leelawati (60) from Dabli Rathan village, compared the prepaid model to phone recharges. “We have phones but often can’t recharge due to lack of money. The phone stays off for days. The same will happen with electricity,” she said. 

Kamla Meghwal (41) of Chak 34 STG, drew a parallel with the Ujjwala Yojana cooking gas scheme. “The government stopped kerosene, claiming everyone would get LPG. But poor women still burn firewood. Now they’re preparing to cheat us again in the name of ‘electricity for all,” he said. 

Dhannaram Nayak of Urmul Khejari Sansthan, an NGO in Nagaur’s Jhadeli village added that the usage data from smart metres is available only through mobile apps, SMS or websites, which are all mediums inaccessible to large sections of the rural, elderly and illiterate population. 

He also said there is an increased possibility of cyber fraud. “Scammers look for opportunities. Once meters are installed everywhere, they will start calling people, extracting personal data under false pretenses. The government must act cautiously,” Nayak added.  

Consumer rights groups also point to the potential for tariff hikes alongside smart meter rollouts. Ali said that power companies in Rajasthan have already proposed raising the lowest slab from Rs 4.75 per unit to Rs 6, and increasing the fixed monthly service charge for heavy users from Rs 450 to Rs 800, a 77% jump.

Even if such changes were to be challenged, activists say the process is stacked against ordinary people. 

Sanjay Arya, president of the Consumer Protection Committee in Sangaria, said filing objections before regulatory bodies is “almost like fighting a case in court”. 

Petitions run into hundreds of pages of technical data that most people cannot understand without a lawyer, which means paying fees, he said. With the state regulatory commission based in Jaipur and the national commission in Delhi, residents would also need to bear travel, stay, and food costs. “Companies have legal teams,” Arya said. “Citizens have neither the time, money nor resources.”

See Also: Graysexuality in Gen Z: Redefining Modern Sexual Identities

Public being misled: Officials

However, ​the Electricity Department’s Superintendent Engineer Charan said smart meters would ensure accurate billing, allow mobile-based usage tracking, and offer a 15-paise-per-unit discount on prepaid usage. The devices, he added, are tested in national laboratories and meet Indian standards. To build trust, some areas will initially have both traditional and smart meters installed side by side for comparison.

Addressing concerns about a shift to prepaid billing, Charan said it had been proposed but would not be implemented immediately. He added that smart meters would not harm consumers and attributed the opposition to “wrong propaganda”.

 “What is the harm if electricity connections become prepaid in the future?” he said. “Today, people pay for everything in advance in the market, what difference does it make if we pay for electricity the same way?”

This article is republished from 101 Reporters under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

(101Reporters/NS)