UP CM Yogi Adityanath orders STF probe into smart meters malfunctioning across major cities

A day after lakhs of smart electricity meters installed in many cities of Uttar Pradesh stopped functioning, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday ordered a probe into the matter by the state's Special Task Force (STF).

"The CM has ordered a probe by the STF into the matter at a review meeting this morning," Additional Chief Secretary, Home, Awanish Kumar Awasthi told reporters.

On Wednesday, lakhs of households having smart meters in cities including Lucknow, Mathura, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut, and Saharanpur stopped functioning causing power supply distributions.

State-run Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) immediately swung into action and took steps to restore supply of affected consumers.

"The STF probe was necessary as, prima facie, it appeared to be a mischief or a sabotage by someone working in the unified command centre situated in Lucknow or it could be a technical glitch also," a senior UPPCL officer said.

The smart meters have a feature that automatically snaps power supply to a premise if the bill is not paid by the due date. This feature went out of order, thereby, snapping power in the households of those consumers, who had paid their electricity bills, he said.

The UPPCL has installed around 11 lakh smart meters in major cities of the state. The Energy Efficiency Services Ltd (EESL), a Government of India enterprise, is responsible for procuring smart meters for UPPCL and also operates the unified command centre for these meters in Lucknow.

While admitting to the lapse on Twitter on Wednesday night, EESL Director Venkatesh Dwivedi said, "Due to technical error, some smart meters were inadvertently disconnected in UP...All smart metering services have now been restored".

He also informed the UPPCL that EESL's UP head Adesh Saxena and project manager L&T Shashikant Agrawal had been suspended with immediate effect in connection with the matter.

(Photo Credit: PTI)