Editor,
The people of Meghalaya are amused to read reports about acute power shortage in the State. For years the Government of Meghalaya had invited and signed agreements with various companies to start hydel and thermal power plants in the State but those remained only on paper. It is important to trace the history of these power deals. For example, the detailed project report (DPR) for the Mawphu hydel power project on the river-Umiam-Mawphlang was prepared by NEEPCo in 2005. The DPR was prepared keeping in mind local sentiments and in consultation with local bodies who were the main stakeholders of the project. The DPR was submitted to the State Government by NEEPCo on March 31, 2007 and thereafter the Corporation waited for the green signal for permission to start work.
The Mawphu Hydro-Project Stage-I starts from the slopes of Weiseisiej towards Mawphu. The proposed dam submitted in the DPR is for Weiseisiej. In that year the present Chief Minister was the Power Minister. He invited one Dubai based company known as ETAST AR to undertake the project at river Umiew (Umiam). The agreement was signed between the Dubai based company and the State Government on December 20, 2007 to undertake the project at Umja-ut and Umduna in Umiew basin.
Interestingly the officers at the Secretariat feign ignorance about the reallocation of the projects. The distance of the Umduna Project from Weiseisiej is 40 metres only and both the proposed project of Mawphu and Umduna of ETASTAR run in the same direction. What baffles the local people is why the State Government sat on the NEEPCo DPR only to make way for other cash rich companies like ETASTAR. The Company is unwilling to negotiate with the local land-owners and local authorities. It wants to work unilaterally and to pay off all dissenters. The local people are against ETASTAR. They had resolved not to part with their land to this company and they had intimated the State Government from time to time regarding the local demands vis-à-vis the Company.
The local people understand that ETASTAR is not interested to work at Umja-ut project. Instead it wants to avail the DPR prepared by NEEPCo through the State Government and to work at Mawphu area. For over five years no decision was taken on this project. The local people met with the officers of ETASTAR but the Company revealed that it is no longer interested to take up the work and are now ready to leave except that they are waiting to get back the crore of rupees spent for procuring the project.
The local people are keen that the project starts in right earnest and have asked the Government to hand the project over to NEEPCo to ease the power shortage and to avoid depending on other states like Tripura etc. for power supply. The people of Meghalaya must take stock of all the power projects signed by the State Government with various private power producers and put pressure on the Government to start work without further delay. This is the only way to undo the man made power crisis in the State.
Yours etc.,
P Phanwanjah
Vill. Mawphu
Out of context
Editor,
If Sonie Kharduit wants to comment on my response (ST May 7, 2013) to George Lyngdoh’s letter of April 30 last I have nothing against it, but I request him to restrict his criticism to the contents of my letter otherwise it will mislead the public. I accept constructive criticism but let it be confined to the text in question. The concern shown by Kharduit for the attack on “innocent people” on the April 4, last would have been better appreciated if he had shown the same concern for the four unarmed Khasi villagers who were shot dead by the Assam Police at Langpih a few years ago and more recently for the three innocent Khasi women who were brutally assaulted by a gang of Nepali men at Langpih.
To quote Kharduit on my reference to Dr. Mukul Sangma’s remarks about the under-development of Meghalaya, that today even after 43 years of statehood ” the government (meaning the state govt.) doesn’t possess a magic wand to bring development in a flash…,” may I remind him that no magic wand was needed to transform Singapore from a once under-developed third world nation to one of the most flourishing and highly developed nation in the world today within half a century. All it needed was a dedicated and a dynamic leadership with a vision to lead the government, something which Meghalaya desperately and urgently needs, right now.
Yours etc.
Michael N. Syiem
Via email