By Sumarbin Umdor
The CM of the Meghalaya is guilty of the same accusation that Priyanka Gandhi made on Narendra Modi when she said that he was addressing his countrymen as though they are primary school children. In his recent statement on the power crisis in the state, the CM has faulted everyone right from climate change, MeECL, UDP and going as far as pointing out that NEEPCO should be more accommodating to the state notwithstanding the fact that it has continuously defaulted in its payments to the company. His attempt to absolve the state government of the blame for the present unprecedented 10 hour power cuts and deflect it elsewhere is disappointing and the people of the state are not gullible school children to accept his explanation.
We all know that the immediate reason for the long hours of load shedding is the failure to pay outstanding dues to NEEPCO and other power companies. In August of 2013, the Power Minister had assured the Assembly that the government would be clearing all pending dues of power utilities. However, this assurance was not kept and dues continue to mount forcing power utilities like NEEPCO to stop power supply from 26.11.2013. The state government knew of this situation but took no measures to address the payment issue. Hence it is squarely to be blamed for the misery that citizens have to endure.
The argument that the state government and MeECL are two separate entities does not cut much ice. MeECL and other power utilities in the state are run by board of Directors who are elected/nominated by the shareholders. Since these companies are fully owned by the state government, failure of these companies is therefore failure of the owner (state government) to properly guide the functioning of these companies. Further, the CM’s disappointment on the performance of MeECL is bemusing. His statement that certain measures suggested by the government to the company to reduce losses are not being complied is rather strange. Why can’t the government, as the owner of the company, fix responsibility and hold officials accountable for lapses. Rather than expressing helplessness, we expect the state government to set things right.
There are two main villains that have precipitated this crisis. They are the high AT&D losses and high consumption by power guzzling high and extra high tension (EHT) industries. While much has been said about the AT&D losses (40 percent), we also need to focus our attention on the other villain. Meghalaya, to my knowledge, is the only state in the country where EHT industries use as much as 50 percent of power sold in the state. This is not happening even in industrialised states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. In Assam, sale of power to EHT segment was only 18 percent of total sale in 2011-12. There are some perverse incentives that draw these industries to the state. Power supply to these units therefore needs to be regulated.
There should be a moratorium on setting up of new EHT industries and also on expansion in capacity of existing units till the power situation improves. As desperate times call for desperate measures, the state government should bring in power distribution under the essential commodity act and impose additional restriction on power consumption by EHT consumers till the time the state power generation improves. Further, EHT industries should be encouraged to set up their own captive power plant to reduce their dependence on the state power utility.
As far as the high AT&D loss is concerned, steps that are needed to be taken are well known. What is required is to make the functioning of the Board of MeECL more transparent and accountable to the citizens, and one such measure is to include non-government official(s)in the Board. We can also think of a citizen monitoring committee to follow up on the actions taken by the Company to bring down the losses and improve efficiency.
(The author teaches Economics in North Eastern Hill University)