The Coordination Committee of Registered MeECL (Employees) Associations and Unions (CCORMAU) today extended its full support to the Meghalaya government to manage the prevailing power crisis in the state.
The members of the organisation said this after holding discussions with Power Minister AT Mondal in his office chambers. They had wanted to meet him as they have not been paid their salaries for two months and their attempts to meet the Chairman and Managing Director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) have not been successful.
Meghalaya has been enduring several hours of power cuts every day, ranging from eight to ten hours, due to a deficit in rain, cuts in supply from shares it is entitled to from other power projects and the MeECL’s woeful financial wellbeing.
“We had an open discussion, be it on the functioning of the utilities, power scenario in the state, power purchase, tariff for consumers and industries and the functioning of the regulatory commission,” informed CCORMAU vice-president Arju Dkhar.
Laying emphasis on a cooperative effort by the rank and file MeECL employees, Dkhar said, “We could see the political will of the Chief Minister and the Power Minister. As a responsible union and association, we do have our grievances and we stand here saying that we have not received our salary and we tried to meet the CMD and maybe, intentionally or unintentionally, he has avoided us, which is very unfortunate.”
Although there will be little to no relief in the short term, in the long-run “we see there is hope,” Dkhar said while gushing about how the minister has the political will to sort out the matter.
“From the association and union side, we are going to extend our support and we have requested him (Mondal) to take us into confidence … to see the organisation prosper,” he said.
Relating their own personal woes, the workers were meant to hold a protest over unpaid dues on Monday but were then invited for talks by the CMD, which were to be held today. However, less than an hour before the meeting, it was cancelled.
“This was very unfortunate and we are very hurt by that but after meeting the Power Minister we could see the hope and, henceforth, we will be interacting more with the Power Minister,” Dkhar said.
He also talked about the subsidised rates that the “pampered” industries get as they pay less than even domestic consumers. Even the latter pay only Rs 5 per unit when Meghalaya pays Rs 8 for every unit of electricity bought from elsewhere.
“These are all aspects that we have to look into. Domestic consumers should be subsidised but what about the commercial industries?” he questioned while adding that they owe crores of rupees to the utility and Mondal was advised to take strict action against defaulting industricts.
On the demand to increase the tariff, he said, “There are issues which I would not like to speak about openly here. The government has taken a very serious view on this. We hope in days to come we will see the result of this.”
