SHILLONG:
All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) national spokesperson Saket Gokhale, on December 15, accused the MDA government of compromising the security of people by installing Chinese smart meters in the state.
In a statement, Gokhale said, “We call upon the MDA Govt to explain to the people of Meghalaya and India as to why such a great risk has been taken with the security of the state’s infrastructure. The MDA Govt must explain why Chinese smart meters were procured at 11x of the average price from a favorite contractor of the NPP called Satnam Group.”
He said that the AITC will not tolerate the situation, adding, “James Sangma & Prestone Tynsong must come clean on why they lied brazenly to the people of Meghalaya and compromised the infrastructure security of the state by installing Chinese smart meters without security approval and in violations of the rules established by the Union Govt of India on usage of Chinese equipment.”
Gokhale said the MDA government had awarded the contract for installing smart electricity meters to a consortium consisting of Chinese company Inhemeter. With concerns raised by TMC Meghalaya in June, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong stated that the meters were yet to be approved by the Renewable Energy Certificates (REC) and the Centre.
The AITC spokesperson mentioned that then-Power Minister James Sangma had shared a picture of a Chinese Inhemeter Smart Meter installed at his home on Twitter, on February 25, 2021.
According to him, the Trinamool Congress has consistently raised security concerns regarding the installation along with large-scale alleged corruption in awarding of smart electricity meter contract where meters were procured at an over-inflated price.
Gokhale informed, “On December 2, 100 servers at India’s premier hospital All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi were hacked which completely disrupted and paralysed operations at the hospital. This hack has now been determined to have been done by China through hackers backed by the state. It was a clear act of cyber warfare by China to attack a critical healthcare network in India. This was closely followed by illegal incursion of Chinese PLA troops into Indian territory near Tawang, Arunachal Pradesh, where they were successfully repelled by the courageous Indian Armed Forces.”
He said China has clearly established a doctrine of cyber warfare against India where Chinese state-backed hackers aim to disrupt and shut down critical infrastructure in India, adding that the smart meters pose great risk to the infrastructure of Meghalaya as these Chinese smart meters are SIM-based and connected to the grid.