The Garo Hills zone unit of the Federation of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) has reacted strongly to the increase in load shedding to 10 hours a day in the region.
In a letter to Power Minister AT Mondal, the pressure group said that the increase in power cuts has “crippled the normal functioning of life in all of Garo Hills region”.
What is worse is that the cuts come at a time when Garo Hills is experiencing record high temperatures.
Although the FKJGP understands that Meghalaya owes a large amount to national power companies – thus necessitating the cuts – it said that the state’s financial situation has improved with the introduction of GST.
As taxpayers, the people “expect to live our lives as first class citizens without being deprived of our basic amenities and electricity is considered a basic amenity in this age and era.”
The organisation wondered whether the Power Department was purposely being made to fail in order to privatise the sector. The FKJGP also asked the minister why other districts are being “favoured” with fewer hours of load shedding, saying that this would be “undesirable keeping in mind the current political scenario of Meghalaya.”
Amusingly, the FKJGP said that the lights went off as it was writing this letter and said it hoped Mondal would appreciate the irony.
