The ‘breach of privilege motion’ moved by the Opposition Congress against Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was rejected by the House on Monday while Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong sought for imposition of a penalty on the complainant.
The motion was moved by Congress MLA from Rangsakona, Zenith M. Sangma against the Chief Minister for allegedly misleading the House on the power purchase agreement (PPA) made with the NTPC in 2007.
Moving the motion, the Congress legislator said that it was unfortunate the Chief Minister mislead the House and the people of the State on the PPA signed in 2007. “There is no mention of the Rs. 11 crore per month that has to be paid to the NTPC,” Sangma said.
He said that if the MeECL is not willing to pay the amount of fixed charges to the NTPC, there is an exit clause.
Sangma said that as per the exit clause, in case of termination of the agreement, the MeECL has to pay fixed charges to NTPC till the time a separate bulk purchaser is engaged.
He said that the statement of the Chief Minister that the MeECL has to pay capacity charges to the NTPC for the next 25 years was incorrect.
“It implies the MeECL do not have the option but to pay the amount which is incorrect,” Sangma said.
Replying to the charges made by the Congress legislator, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma said that the NTPC had billed the MeECL with a fixed capacity charge of Rs. 11.86 crore.
“I am referring to this number where is the question of misleading the House? These are facts for everybody to see,” the Chief Minister added.
The Chief Minister said that out of the Rs. 531 crore bill pending with NTPC, the MeECL has already paid Rs. 100 crore.
He said that for the past three years nobody was willing to buy power from NTPC due to the high rates and the State was paying the fixed charges for the past many years.
The Chief Minister also said that contrary to claims made by the opposition that the PPA signed with NTPC in 2007 had an exit clause, he said that only the NTPC will have the power to terminate the agreement.
Stating that the agreement was “lopsided”, the Chief Minister said, “In event of termination of agreement the MeECL shall be liable to pay the capacity charges each month.”
Stating that the Congress government in 2007 should have done due diligence before signing the PPA said that there is no standard format for PPAs.
“The genesis of the problem started with the agreement made in 2007,” he said.
The Chief Minister also said that in 2016, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had come up with different rates, the government of Meghalaya should have taken the matter up with the regulatory commission and not with the government of India.
After the motion was defeated, Deputy Chief Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Prestone Tynsong sought imposition of a Rs. 500 penalty on the complainant for tabling the “groundless complaint” as per the rule 173 of the Rules and procedures and conduct of Business of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly.
The Deputy Chief Minister said such a motion sets a “dangerous precedence.”
“Anyone can come up with a breach of privilege motion through such groundless motions, it is an unnecessary motion and takes so much time from important businesses,” Tynsong said while seeking Zenith be charged the amount of Rs. 500 as penalty.
Speaker, Metbah Lyngdoh said he would be examining Tynsong’s suggestion.
