Meghalaya's Trinamool Congress prefers Chinese smart meters

• Image Credit: Internet

• Aug 1, 2022 | Kabir Chakraborty

These smart electricity meters contain a SIM card that connects them to telecom/Internet networks, and they are fitted with smart cards linked to all power networks in India, he wrote.

Digital Desk: The Trinamool Congress
(TMC) has slammed the Conrad K. Sangma-led alliance government in Meghalaya for
bending rules and putting the country’s security at risk by allowing an Indian
company to install Chinese smart meters in the state.

The BJP is a minor partner in the
government headed by the National People’s Party. The Centre on July 23,
2020, amended the General Financial Rules 2017 to ban, on grounds of national
security, bidders from countries that share a land border with India.

In a letter to Donald Phillips
Wahlang, the chairman and managing director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation
Limited (MeECL), TMC George B Lyngdoh said the smart meters being installed in
the state’s households are manufactured by Inhemeter, a Chinese company based
in Shenzhen.

These
smart electricity meters contain a SIM card that connects them to
telecom/Internet networks, and they are fitted with smart cards linked to all
power networks in India, he wrote.

It seems, he said, that the Meghalaya
government found a way to circumvent the rules pertaining to national security
by allowing Satnam Global Infra Project Limited, an Indian company, to procure
the smart meters from China.

"…There have been several confirmed
reports of state-backed hackers from China carrying out cyberattacks and
shutting down power infrastructure in other countries… When these acts of
cyberattacks and cyber espionage are clearly known in the public domain, it is
baffling that the government of Meghalaya and the MeECL decided to proceed with
the installation of the Chinese meters in gross violation of India’s national
security policies," the TMC leader said. 

Lyngdoh asked the Meghalaya government
if it had the Centre’s approval for installing these smart meters if security
audits had been conducted and if the smart meters were tested for back door
vulnerabilities before the process of installation began.

Given the security risks associated
with these Chinese meters, he also asked if the Meghalaya Government has any
plans to roll back the project. "This is an important and pressing issue
that not only pertains to the security of the northeast but also has great
ramifications on the power infrastructure and grid of India," he wrote.