Srinagar, Jan 29: At a time when the coalition government has come under severe criticism over the “fishy deal” of replacement of power meters with the new ones in Srinagar, the Power Development Department (PDD) has again started the re-metering in the summer Capital.
 For now the old meters are being replaced with the new ones at Fazl Haque Colony, Habak even as the residents are up in arms against the government over the deal.
 The residents argued PDD’s wisdom of replacing the already installed meters with new ones.
 “What is the fun of replacing these meters when they have been installed barely two to three years back?” argued the residents.
 They alleged that some of the “influential” residents were being spared of the new metering.
 The PDD Chief Engineer Muhammad Muzaffar Mattoo while admitting the replacement of the meters refuted allegations that any discrimination was being done in the metering. He said replacement of meters was a normal process.
 Pertinently for quite sometime, the PDD’s metering program has come under criticism with eyebrows being raised on frequent replacement of digital instruments in some areas of Srinagar.
 Last month the Kashmir Center for Social and Development Studies exposed the issue at a news conference. Its member including prominent industrialist Syed Shakeel Qalander said the digital meters have been replaced twice in Chanapora since 2007.
  “The entire locality has almost 13000 meters installed at present and a single installation costs around Rs 1500. What is the necessity for replacing the meters when they are in proper working condition?” said a civil society activist hinting that the move might have money minting motives and “if probed it could turn out to be a big scam.”
 “There’s a need to peruse as to how much this government has spent on replacement of meters and why,” he added.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:00 IST