The opposition Congress Party will bring a breach of privilege motion against Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for allegedly misleading the Assembly on the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) signed in 2007 with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), leader of the opposition Dr Mukul Sangma said today.
This was informed to the press by Dr Sangma after today’s Assembly session.
On Tuesday Conrad had blamed the Congress government in 2007 of signing a supposedly one-sided agreement by which the state was committed to pay for electricity above the market rate from a new coal-fired plant in Bongaigaon. The CM claimed that this deal adversely affected the financial standing of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) and was thus to blame for extensive power cuts in Meghalaya of late.
Earlier, Dr Sangma, in the Assembly today, said that the CM had not done his homework when it came to understanding the agreement that Meghalaya signed 14 years ago.
“Has the Chief Minister read every page? He has not,” Dr Sangma said while taking part in a short duration discussion on ‘the prevailing power crisis in the state of Meghalaya’.
The leader of the opposition also asked where in the agreement was it written that Meghalaya would have to pay Rs 11 crore per month to the NTPC as was mentioned by the Chief Minister.
“Why has the Chief Minister misled the august house?” Dr Sangma questioned. He said that the agreement signed in July 2007 was a culmination of a long-drawn discussion by the North East states with the government of India that also involved the North Eastern Region Power Committee (NERPC).
The leader of the opposition said that the agreement was a standard one approved by the Centre signed by every state in the region.
He also wondered why, if the deal was such a bad one, did the government which came to power in 2008 not scrap it. After the 2008 state election, Meghalaya was run by a coalition led by the United Democratic Party (UDP) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The NCP was then led by Conrad’s late father, Purno A Sangma.
“Why didn’t they relook at this agreement? If this was bad why didn’t they cancel it?” Dr Sangma stated, adding that other contracts made when the Congress was in charge were cancelled by the UDP-NCP.
In response Power Minister attacked the Congress over the length of the PPA, which is to be in place for 25 years. According to him, some PPAs apply for only five or 10 years.
As the last unit of the plant was made operational in 2019, Meghalaya is tied to the agreement until 2044.
“I do not understand the logic of the government of that time that would tie us down in this manner and cause huge loss to the state,” he added.
