It seems like clean persons can no longer work in the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL), a government run enterprise, which is lately beset by alleged corruption, scandals and nepotism.
Lumlanglin Kharkongor, a former IAS officer, who is also the lone woman in the board of directors in the MeECL, resigned on January 3 this year.
The MeECL board of directors comprises the Chairman and Managing Director Arunkumar Kembhavi and two independent directors – Lumlanglin Kharkongor (IAS) and L M Sangma (IAS) besides other directors.
Kharkongor not only quit as independent and woman director of MeECL but also from the three subsidiary companies of MeECL — Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited, Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Limited and Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Limited.
Kharkongor who is known as a bureaucrat with impeccable integrity till her retirement from service in the State government was appointed as independent director of MeECL and its three subsidiaries on December 4, 2018.
What led to her resignation is her displeasure with the goings on in the MeECL and the way things were being bulldozed and hurried off for corrupt purposes which according to her were “not acceptable”.
Sources said that Kharkongor was upset with the proposals and agenda presented earlier this year at the MeECL board meeting without prior notice.
The proposals were hurriedly brought at the MeECL board meeting on grounds that they are “urgent” in nature, that too in less than an hour.
These include matters relating to “no regrets” price offers made by certain private companies involving crores of rupees for certain supply contracts under the MeECL.
Another agenda was relating to engagement of a private company to monetise the land assets of MeECL across the State including at Umiam.
In her resignation letter, Kharkongor had said that as per Clause 1.3.7 of the Secretarial Standard of Meeting of the Board of Directors (as per Companies Act 2013), notes and agenda should be given to the directors at least seven days before the meeting.
Kharkongor who opposed such a hurried manner of laying such an agenda had also said that the proposal for monetising the land assets of MeECL was unjustified and also may attract the provisions of the Meghalaya Land Transfer Act.
“Proposals of such nature need to be examined in greater detail and should not be pushed through on the grounds of urgency,” she had said in her resignation letter.
Recently, MeECL has come under fire for the alleged brazen loot of hundreds of crores of rupees in various projects which included the Saubhagya scheme for electrification of every rural household in the State, Smart Meter Project and supplies of computer items besides waiver of electricity bill to a private factory at Byrnihat.
One organisation, The Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR), has even come forward to demand the resignation of Power Minister James Sangma “because it is under his watch that these financial irregularities have taken place”.
