Opposition Congress MLA Zenith Sangma accused Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma of shirking his government’s responsibility by blaming the Congress for the troubles the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) is currently facing.
Yesterday Conrad said that the Congress-led government in 2007 had signed up to a deal that committed the state to buying expensive power from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Bongaigaon project for 25 years. Even if the state chooses not to purchase electricity from the plant it still has to pay fixed fees to the NTPC, ladling the state with crores in expenses every year.
When making such claims Zenith said that the CM should lay a copy of the 2007 agreement in the house because he had “misled” the MLAs.
Zenith said that when the Bongaigaon facility was being developed all the North East states were signing the agreement and Meghalaya was also one of the signatories of the power purchase agreement (PPA).
The Congress legislator said that when Bongaigaon was commissioned in 2015 (when the Congress was still in charge in Meghalaya) the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission fixed the rates and, since these were found to be higher than the market rate, Meghalaya refused to buy power from it.
“We fought, (we) had lots of engagements with the government of India and we refused to buy power from the NTPC and we didn’t pay even a penny,” he said.
The opposition legislator said that the problem started on August 1, 2019 (after Conrad’s Meghalaya Democratic Alliance took over the reins of power) when the Centre adopted a payment security mechanism for purchase of power by distribution companies.
“The government has been sleeping since then. The government didn’t know. There was no engagement with the government of India. We could have fought for getting justice,” Zenith stated.
This is just one example, he added, of the mess the MeECL is in, with the ex-minister informing that the Finance Director post in the power utility has yet to be filled.
