By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The Achik Senior Citizens Forum (ASCF), Tura has expressed serious concern on the electricity disruption in Garo Hills which is very irregular and has become intolerable for people both at home and outdoor.
The ASCF President said that every day people experience frequent disruption of power supply many a times in a single day.
The most affected are the school going children and students who are preparing for their upcoming exams as their study gets hugely affected due to bad supply of power.
Apart from the troubles faced by the students during the years, the people in general experience the most unpleasant times in their workshops, in offices operating computers, failure of electric fans in times of scorching heat and so on, said the ASCF President, WG Momin.
During the recently concluded Xmas festival, the failure of power, a regular phenomenon, the celebration took a grinding halt as every household decoration went off.
Mr Momin said that despite Garo Hills having 24 MLAs including the Chief Minister and Power Minister with the former Lok Sabha speaker and two Members of Parliament, the region is dipped in acute darkness throughout the year.
Momin along with people from all districts of the Garo Hills have sought to know the reason behind such power failure in Garo Hills.
During the entire year, hundreds of times the power supply was cut off and during the last festive season the power went off beyond calculations. “It appears that all hell broke loose and the devil entered the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth through the weak point of the power department of Meghalaya,” said Mr Momin, angrily.
The ASCF along with other senior citizens of Garo Hills has sought to know whether the disruption is due to the negligence of duty of the concerned officers or is it because of the technical deficiency of the officers appointed for the purpose.
They have also asked whether it is because of the low quality of machinery that the department has installed in the transformers, whether the department including the minister doesn’t feel the importance of festivals and finally whether the department intentionally neglects the region to tarnish the image of the leaders like the Chief Minister who represents Garo Hills.
“The water level of the Umiam Lake is going down and it may be one of the reasons for the power cuts. In this regard the power department should have planned well ahead some alternative arrangements to sustain the normal power supply during the important festival period,” alleged the president.
“Ever since the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited took over Meghalaya State Electricity Board, the availability of the light and the disruption of power supply have increased than before and have urged the authorities to look into the sustainability of the power supply in time of need,” he added.