Meghalaya power crisis deepens, state to seek Centre’s intervention

SHILLONG:

Meghalaya Power Minister James Sangma, on Tuesday, said that he would go to New Delhi and meet the Union Power Minister, to seek his intervention into the power crisis in Meghalaya.

While addressing reporters, Sangma said a meeting chaired by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma was held on Tuesday to discuss the sudden load-shedding imposed by the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).

Others who attended the meeting included the Cabinet Ministers, the Chief Secretary and officials of the Power Department.

According to Sangma, the meeting discussed the reasons behind the sudden load shedding, including ways of addressing the issue.

“This has been necessitated because of a certain issue regarding the credit for the National Thermal Power Corporation of India (NTPC) and this is also why the MeECL has to go into 6 to 9 hours of load shedding,” Sangma said.

“The Power Department had briefed the State Government of the whole issue and it was decided that I, as the Power Minister, will meet the Hon’ble Minister of Power, Government of India, to discuss this issue, including the difficulties and challenges that we as a state are facing presently and to make sure that this regulation can be withdrawn by the NTPC at the earliest,” he said.

On being asked about the sudden load shedding and the lack of any prior notification, Sangma said, “There is a Government of India order in the past which states that all distribution companies and Discoms have to make a letter of credits.”

“The Letter of Credits (LCs) is against the dues which are payable to the generating companies. This letter is to be placed with the regional load dispatch centre which schedules the power. And this load dispatch centre, only after it has received information from the generation companies as to the status of the LCs by the Discoms, then accordingly schedules power for the Discoms,” he said.

“The MeECL had already placed an LC with the NTPC to the tune of about Rs 18 crore, and this LC was unfortunately encashed by the NTPC. It is because of certain fixed charges that are outstanding dues to the NTPC. And that’s why because the LC was encashed, they have asked the MeECL to give a new LC in place of the encashed LC.”

“In the absence of that letter of credit, NTPC has then gone ahead and blocked the portal whereby the load dispatch centre is not being able to schedule power to the MePDCL,” he added.

On being asked about how students would prepare for their upcoming examinations while bearing with power cuts, Sangma said, “We understand that this has come all of a sudden. And we feel that this is very unfortunate on the part of the NTPC to act in this manner even though we have availed the AatmaNirbhar loan and we are looking at clearing all outstanding dues which are payable to them,” Sangma said.

“But having said that, we as a government understand the sensitive nature of this time wherein load shedding has to be announced as students are preparing for their examinations. And that is why, looking at the urgency, we have decided that I will be personally going to New Delhi to meet the Hon’ble Minister of Power to put this forward,” he said.

“It is a difficult time for everybody, including the Government of Meghalaya wherein our resources, have been affected badly because of COVID-19. The Government of India has to understand that and be a little more sensitive. So I will be meeting the Hon’ble Minister. I will try to meet him tomorrow, lay down these facts and try to come up with a solution,” he added.

(Edited by Andre Kongri)

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