West Khasi Hills villages without power for years

SHILLONG: The United A’chik Youth Federation (UAYF) at Rengdim in West Khasi Hills has condemned the Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL) in Nongstion for not supplying electricity to several villages in the district and demanded that the problem should be solved at the earliest.
In a statement issued on Friday, the organisation said, “MePDCL has failed to supply electricity to the villages of West Khasi Hills. We have approached the department followed by submission of a memorandum in 2016 but surprisingly MePDCL has ignored and failed to fulfil our demands till date.”
The UAYF informed that MePDCL had convinced the villagers saying the central schemes for rural electrification are not being sanctioned these days and instead the same scheme has been converted into Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana and the district will receive the same soon.
The organisation added that it received a phone call from the Sub-Divisional Officer (Distribution), MePDCL Department of Nongstoin who invited the members to his office to discuss how rural areas can be electrified.
“We were directed the ways of transportation of necessary materials from the department to reach out to the villages and (we) urged the department for proceeds the works of electrifying these areas as early as possible before the rain comes. On that day itself the department also assured us confidently stating that they will start the work soon and it would be completed before Christmas in 2017 but the department have done nothing till now,” the UAYF said.
However, some work was done in areas like Goreng ‘A’ where a transformer was taken but was not installed for the last seven years.
“Residents of this particular village have to remain in