Militant outfit does homework on power scenario in State
SHILLONG: The banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) has alleged that the prevalent power crisis in Meghalaya is a planned conspiracy of the Government of Meghalaya in order to pave way for uranium mining in the State.
“The HNLC would never tolerate anything related to uranium mining and people encouraging uranium mining will be dealt with severely. This current crisis is designed in order to suit the personal motives of the government,” HNLC publicity secretary Sainkupar Nongtraw said in a statement issued on Wednesday.
He also said that this is a policy of the Hindu government at the Centre towards Meghalaya to make the Hynniewtrep and Achik starve in hunger.
Nongtraw observed that the load shedding in recent times has affected everyone including newspapers, hospitals, banks, schools, water supply and other important services being the most affected.
The outfit lamented that despite having two power projects – Umiam Hydel Project and Myntdu-Leshka, a run-of-the-river (ROR) Project generating around 186 MW and 126 MW of power – the State is not able to meet its power requirement which is over 600 MW.
“The State has to purchase power from outside to meet the demand. The total outstanding dues against power purchase from 11 central engineering stations public undertaking units companies have touched Rs. 473.85 crore as on February 28 last, Nongtraw said, while adding that NEEPCO has the highest outstanding dues of nearly Rs. 364 crore, followed by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. at Rs. 28.39 crore, NTPC at Rs. 24.65 crore and National Hydro Power Corporation at Rs. 21.23 crore.
Despite the crisis, Nongtraw said that Chief Minister Mukul Sangma was away from office since he began campaign for the Lok Sabha polls for Congress candidate Daryl William Momin, while several other ministers did not attend office even after the elections to the two Lok Sabha seats in Shillong and Tura on April 9.
According to Nongtraw, the Hynniewtrep region had always been a state with surplus power to the extent that it could afford to sell surplus power to other states.
He said that in 2006 MeSEB incurred a loss of Rs. 12.15 crore and in addition to that the State Government had to shell out Rs. 923.3 crore in 2006-07 to buy power from external sources at above par rates.
“Although the State has vast hydro power potential estimated at 3000 MW, the installed capacity of Myntdu- Leshka hydel project in 2012, on which close to Rs. 1300 crore expenditure has been incurred, has proven to be useless as this project is operating more like a small hydro project generating a disappointing 6 MW of power against its installed capacity of 126 MW,” the HNLC publicity secretary said.
He also said that the State has failed to develop thermal power generation which would have helped to tide over the power deficit during the dry season.