The Suvendu Adhikari dispensation has asked government offices to complete the installation of smart meters and make them operational by August, dropping a hint that the BJP administration will push for the installation of the device for common consumers even though the previous government had to stall the scheme last year in the face of stiff consumer resistance.

“There are 92,000 government offices across the state and smart meters were installed in 80,000 of them during the tenure of the previous government. But the meters were not made operational. It has been decided that smart meters would be installed in the remaining 12,000 offices and the devices would be made operational in all offices by August this year,” said a senior state government official.

Sources said that the decision to complete the installation of smart meters in government offices was taken during a meeting between Union power minister Manohar Lal Khattar and chief minister Suvendu Adhikari in Calcutta on May 30.

'The Centre informed the state that if it completed the installation of smart meters in government offices, it would receive some funds. As this is low-hanging fruit, we decided to go for it,” said a senior official.

A section of the officials said that the state government was likely to push for the installation of smart meters for domestic consumers after completion of the scheme in government offices.

'This would be the first bitter pill that the BJP-led state government would swallow after coming to power. But before installing the smart meters in consumers' residences, the government would run several trial runs to ensure people don't have grievances,” said an official.

The smart meters work like prepaid mobile phones, where a balance must be recharged before electricity can be used. The smart meters were being installed as part of the Centre's revamped distribution sector scheme (RDSS), which would allow distribution companies real-time monitoring of electricity usage, theft prevention and outage reduction.

The initiative to install smart meters for domestic consumers had started during the previous government's term. About 60,000 smart meters were installed in domestic consumers' residences out of a total of 2.2 crore consumers.

But the government had to stall the process as consumers complained they were being forced to pay more after smart meters were installed and they faced trouble getting electricity connections back after their balance reached zero.

The state government announced several facilities, such as allowing consumers to use electricity up to a negative balance of ₹300, meaning their connection would not be disconnected even if their balance reached negative ₹300. The previous government had also announced that there would be no disconnection on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and other government holidays so that consumers would not have trouble getting connections back.

But the agitation by consumers in several districts like Nadia and Hooghly, where several smart meters were installed, gained momentum despite the additional benefits announced by the previous government. Finally, the state government had to pause the initiative in June last year, keeping the 2026 Assembly polls in mind.

A senior government official said they would initiate all possible steps to make the scheme attractive for common people.

“Smart meters are installed in all other states, and there were complaints from consumers. The previous government did not implement the scheme properly. If implemented properly, consumers would pay less, and we will take all measures to make it attractive for domestic consumers,” said a senior official.