The working president of the Khun Hynñiewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) has criticised the erratic nature of power cuts that the state is facing at the moment.
“Even after the water level at Umiam has reached its maximum level, residences are still having to bear with load shedding by the MeECL (Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd) till today due to the so called swapping of 450 million units of power to certain utilities which had bailed out Meghalaya during the crisis period by making power available to the state,” Thomas Passah said, adding that it is questionable that the state-owned MeECL just referred to “certain utilities” without specifying which ones Meghalaya owes electricity to.
Although load shedding hours have been reduced from their peak of eight hours per day in Shillong and Tura and 10 hours elsewhere, now Meghalayans are having to put up with erratic power cuts at all hours of the day, leaving the population unable to schedule their day the way they could when the cuts, however unwelcome, were at least according to a fixed schedule.
“Till today the power cuts are continuing but the citizens of the state are facing more problems since the timings of the power cuts is not specific. We have observed that at the same locality the power cut timings varies between days. Such untimely power cuts make it hard for the citizen to manage/plan their required activities/responsibilities at home,” Passah said.
The party leader also reiterated KHNAM’s view that the load shedding is a violation of the Electricity (Rights of Consumers) Rules 2020.
He said that KHNAM will be taking further steps against the MeECL for violating several provisions of the rules and will not allow them to take the general public for a ride.
