Amidst ongoing Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the state with hundreds succumbed to the infection and thousands active cases battling for recoveries and whereas the entire Meghalaya has extended its total curfew/containment measures to mitigate the spread of the virus that has already caused dilemma and chaos amongst the poor and the needy who earns at day to eat at night.
The State government under the leadership of the Chief Minister Conrad Sangma pulled another string that caused horrid consequences to the public particularly the Khasi and the Jaintia Hills region. The decision to hand over the MeECL to the corporate sector through Injection Based Distribution Franchisee (IBDF) to REC Power Distribution Company Limited which is a whole subsidiary of the REC Limited for 25 years reflected another business game.
Ironically, the corporate sector will take over the Shillong circle and the Jaintia Hills circle of the MeECL (which is the Khasi and Jaintia hills region) whereas Garo hills are exempted from the franchisee. In layman terms, the government will sell the Khasi and the Jaintia Hills to the company for distribution of power and collection of all revenues for 25 years while saving the Garo hills from the corporate rule.
The MDA government which is currently running three years of its term has flaunted the public with its professional game being played endlessly witnessing coal trafficking issues, pandemic policies making issues and power crisis issues amongst the others.
The current trend of malfunctioned power management by the government inflicted doubts and apprehension amongst the mass. Mr. Chief Minister and Mr. Power Minister, why are you selling us the Khasi and the Jaintia hills? Isn’t a hefty power revenue collected from Garo Hills more than enough for the game to be gambled? And if the two circles are to be sold to the company, what will happen to the thousands of the existing employees of the MeECL from those circles? In short, the future of the power sector in the State is a catastrophe.
Ridiculously, smart electrical meters are being installed in every household accordingly amidst the pandemic where the MeECL personnel visiting each and every household doing their job as instructed by people in command prior to any hearings or awareness of the same with the headmen to aware the residents of such development and act, which is quite vexatious and irksome.
It is now all up to the MLAs of the Khasi and the Jaintia Hills region to fight this battle and free us from such dictatorial policy. Will the public representatives of Khasi and Jaintia hills let the Sangma’s regime sell us for their personal interest?
So far, the MDA government is already a failed one. It’s a crucial time for the Chief Minister and the Power Minister to step down immediately and cease using Khasi and Jaintia Hills as a pitch for their family business or let the new government form that function in accordance with the true meaning of Democracy. (The writer is a well respected personality in Jaintia Hills and resides at Panaliar, Jowai)
