Chief Minister, Mukul Sangma recently admitted that a lot of money is being pumped into the Meghalaya Electric Corporation Ltd (MeECL). The MeECL in its former avatar as MeSEB has been a classic case of throwing good money after bad money. Obviously there is much that is wrong with the Corporation which includes bad financial management including servicing of loans that have been taken year after year to run the Corporation. Consumers have reported a nearly 100% increase in the bill amount of November this year when heaters have not yet been much in use. Will the MeECL explain this sudden rise in tariff? Despite this high tariff there is no assurance of constant power supply. Police Bazar and other commercial areas are worst hit by the frequent power cuts but even residential areas suffer too since many now use electricity as a cooking medium.
Meghalaya has a major power shortfall and has had to purchase power from the national grid. As of March this year, the Meghalaya Government owed Rs 527 crore to the North East Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCo). It is learnt that the accumulated amount till date is to the tune of Rs 700 crore. Certainly this is not the way to run a power corporation. And it is only a matter of time before the Corporation crumbles under its own weight. It needs to be restructured, trimmed down and recapitalised. Those who run the MeECL need to demonstrate that they have the capacity to turn the Corporation around or to show a better way forward instead of being stuck in the same loss-making mould. Efficiency, accountability and outcomes are the three key principles on which any profit-making organisation is run. But the MeECL although having been named a corporation hardly functions like one. Any other profit making entity which requires such frequent bail-outs would have been auctioned off by now. The Opposition parties have listed Power as one of the issues for deliberation in what is to be the last Assembly session for the present government. We hope to see some clarity emerge on the Power scenario in the state. This issue should in fact become the talking point in the run-up to the next election. Political parties that do not take the issue of poor power generation and supply with the seriousness it deserves cannot be considered serious contenders for forming the next government in Meghalaya.