MeECL payment counters
The nearly half-a-dozen counters in the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited office located at MG Road opposite the Main secretariat building does not seem to meet the needs of consumers. The long queues – that spill into the main road are a silent testimony when the due date for payment of electricity bill approaches. The reason for these serpentine queues is because only two counters are functional. The others are lying vacant. Last week, a primary school teacher went to pay his bill at this office and found that only two people were working while the remaining counters were empty. As usual, he had to line up and by the time he reached the counter it was lunch time for the MeECL employees. The teacher and numerous other customers behind him had to wait another half-an-hour for the counter lady to return. The teacher moaned that earlier there were many counter clerks but they have vanished with the corporatization of the electricity board. He also said that in those days, tea used to be served to these clerks inside their counters so that they can attend to their duties. because the time for payment of bill varies with the season. During the winter bill payment is allowed up to a certain time after midday whereas in the summer months the time allowed is longer. But so much depends on the idiosyncracies of the cash clerks. When will MeECL really work like a corporatized unit? The mindset is still so government.
Fraudulent companies
A reader wrote to warn other readers about a Non banking financial company (NBFC) by the name of Kironjyoti Projects and Developers Ltd which has cheated thousands of people in Silchar, Assam and defrauded them of lakhs of rupees. This company collects deposits from the public in the form of Recurring Deposits, Fixed Deposits etc., with the promise of giving Handsome returns. At present the managing authorities of the company at Silchar are absconding and the office is also locked. People are running from pillar to post to get back their hard earned cash. This Company is also running its business in Shillong. The office is located at Dhankheti, behind Woodland’s Hospital. It’s time for the police and administrative authorities here to knock on the doors of this Company if the promoters have not already bolted.
Meghalaya incorporated
An alumni of a reputed Management Institute observed that Meghalaya is now run like a corporate body with the Chief Minister as the corporate honcho – the Company President cum Chief Executive Officer (CEO) while other ministers are only vice presidents of this body. The bureaucrats are managers through whom the CEO exercises his executive powers. Vice Presidents as we all know enjoy the trappings of power and believe they exercise exclusive rights over their departments but all the managers through whom the other VPs also operate, actually report directly to the CEO. So the CEO, in this case the CM here is the real head of the firm (Meghalaya) and he knows what exactly happens in each department. And rightly so since he has to bear the sole responsibility for the smooth working of the Corporate Body and also because the team he has to work with does not seem to share his vision or enthusiasm. Not a very happy situation any which way we look at it.