Meghalaya given unreasonable deadline to clear power arrears: Conrad

HP NEWS SERVICE
Shillong, Apr 22: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has described the short timeframe given to Meghalaya to clear its massive dues to power generating companies as “unreasonable”.
The state was facing months of power cuts because of the tough line taken by power generating companies, such as NEEPCO, which were demanding immediate clearance of their dues. Meghalaya had to bear severe periods of load shedding for a few days at a time in the recent months because of this.
The crisis also led to calls from within allied parties for the sacking of Power Minister James Sangma, the CM’s brother. A separate issue has seen accusations and counter-accusations of corruption made by factions supporting the minister and MeECL Chairman and Managing Director Arunkumar Kembhavi and those backing the corporations’ engineers.
Sangma said the state should have been given up to a year to achieve this as the accumulation of liabilities had been building for more than a decade.
“Space should have been given to MeECL to be able to pay in a time-bound manner. Six months or a year’s time should have been given to do this but that pressure was put on us and that is the reason why so many challenges were there in the last two months,” he said.
The dues are being paid off with the help of a central government loan.
In the long-term, the government is exploring all avenues to streamline the functioning of the MeECL.
He suggested that load shedding of one to two hours could be employed throughout the year rather than for eight to nine hours a day during the winter when the state struggles to produce enough electricity to meet its needs.
The MeECL is currently cracking down, belatedly, on consumers guilty of various infractions, such as those who have multiple connections for one house or for businesses who pay domestic, not commercial, rates.
“We are also working on different mechanisms to create overall efficiency in the system. It’s a lot of work that has to be done. We are hopeful and work has started and in the coming days we will see the MeECL become a financially stronger organisation,” the CM said.