By Tripura24.in Bureau
AGARTALA | July 6, 2026: Launching a massive democratic agitation against escalating utility costs and administrative failures, the Sadar District Congress Committee today organized a high-voltage mass dharna near the Astabal Ground (Swami Vivekananda Stadium) complex. The demonstration was staged at the foothills of the Swami Vivekananda statue to protest the proposed privatization of the state’s power infrastructure, the controversial roll-out of smart prepaid meters, and the ongoing operational inefficiencies within the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited (TSECL).
The protest drew hundreds of Congress party karyartas, consumer rights activists, and ordinary citizens who gathered to demand an immediate overhaul of the state’s energy sector management.
Mounting Public Anger Over Smart Meters and Inflated Utility Bills
The primary focus of the mass sit-in was the recent, severe hike in electricity tariffs and additional service charges, which the Congress leadership claimed has made basic monthly household survival unsustainable for the working class. The demonstrators strongly condemned the forceful installation of digital smart meters, alleging that these devices run on faulty algorithms that artificially inflate bill readings, leaving consumers trapped in a cycle of constant recharges.
Addressing the energetic gathering at the Vivekananda statue tri-junction, senior Congress leaders accused the ruling administration of deliberately pushing the state-owned power corporation into an operational collapse to justify a complete private corporate takeover.
”The common people of Tripura are being subjected to absolute financial extortion in the name of modernization. The state electricity corporation has turned into a hub of deep-seated corruption and mismanagement. While power outages and transformer breakdowns have become an everyday reality in rural and urban pockets, the administration is busy burdening citizens with forced smart meters and abnormally high power tariffs. This proposed power privatization bill is nothing but a corporate deal designed to sell public assets to private multi-millionaires. We demand an immediate freeze on smart meter installations, an absolute rollback of the hiked energy slabs, and a white paper on the financial health of TSECL. If the government refuses to listen, this mass dharna will evolve into a state-wide block-level civil shutdown,” a senior Sadar District Congress representative asserted.
Core Structural Demands Formulated by Sadar Congress
Following the extensive mass dharna, an official organizational delegation moved to forward a detailed memorandum containing specific structural demands to the state administration and power directorate:
- Scrapping the Power Privatization Bill: Demanding the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all legislative proposals aimed at privatizing state power distribution assets.
- Absolute Rollback of Electricity Tariff Hikes: Canceling the newly introduced, elevated consumer billing rates and returning to affordable domestic power pricing structures.
- Scrapping and Suspension of Smart Meters: Halting the forceful installation of prepaid digital smart meters and reinstating reliable, verified standard billing systems across all commercial and domestic connections.
- High-Level Inquiry into TSECL Corruption: Initiating an independent judicial audit into the procurement delays, financial leakages, and operational inefficiencies plaguing the Tripura State Electricity Corporation Limited.
- Upgrading Broken Grid Infrastructure: Deploying immediate emergency funds to replace old, malfunctioning transformers, stabilize voltage fluctuations, and ensure uninterrupted power supply across the state.
The protest concluded with Congress youth volunteers distributing informational leaflets to consumers, pledging to keep building localized community pickets outside regional electrical division offices until visible policy relief is provided.
