SHILLONG, Dec 13: The United Democratic Party (UDP) expressed its concern over the present state of affairs at the MeECL, which resulted in the employees venting their ire against the management.
“For decades, the MeECL has been weighed down due to unpaid debts and the absence of a long-term perspective plan. The employees are completely demoralised and with the non-release of salaries for over two months, they are finding it difficult to make ends meet,” UDP general secretary Jemino Mawthoh said on Sunday.
He said the management’s failure to provide social security to the employees had affected the working environment, which could eventually lead to fall in productivity, breakdown of administration and harassment to consumers.
Stating that power sector is a key ingredient for the economic development of a state, Mawthoh said, “The demand for power has risen substantially due to change in consumption pattern with the increase in domestic, commercial and industrial consumers”.
“The government needs to understand the present affairs of the MeECL holistically and take immediate and proper steps, which could be both short-term and long-term,” he said.
Highlighting some key issues, Mawthoh said, “There is a need to address the gap between the average cost of supply and the average revenue realization which persists due to high aggregate technical and commercial losses”.
“How will the government deal with this gap?” he asked.
The UDP leader also asked what steps the government had taken to address the issues of technical and commercial losses of distribution utilities and liquidation of huge dues.
“What will be the rationale to be adopted to strike a balance between financial viability of the MeECL and serving the interests of the consumers? How will low income consumers be subsidized if there is a change in the tariff structure?” he asked.
Mawthoh insisted on increasing productivity and operational efficiency at the level of revenue sub-division, billing and collection as money is collected from this level.
“Stop franchisee system which is a cosmetic approach. Ensure 100% smart metering and instill confidence in the minds of employees about the challenges and realistic potential of the power sector,” he emphasised.
He said to increase generation capacity of the MeECL, top priority should be given to undertake two potential water resources for development of hydropower generation that would enable the state to be self-sufficient for the next 15-20 years.
“Both MLHEP Stage II and Umngot HEP should be of 200 MW capacities. This will help the MeECL stop purchasing power from outside the state which it can ill afford,” he said.
He demanded the disbursement of salaries for all categories of the employees without further delay.
Cong MLA ready for pay cut
Opposition Congress legislator and Mawryngkneng MLA, David Nongrum has come down heavily on the state government for not being able to manage the affairs of the state and has pitched for diverting three months’ salary of the state legislators to clear the pending salaries of the MeECL employees.
“Don’t pay us salary for two- three months if it helps to ease the burden of the government but pay the salaries of the MeECL employees,” said Nongrum.
Maintaining that he did not mean that the state government was not doing any work, Nongrum pointed out that financial constraint, if any, has to be managed by the state government.
“You will have to know how to manage. You are launching one scheme after another and taking loans despite being already under heavy debt,” he said, while stating that he failed to understand why the state government was taking such a huge loan to build up the current infrastructure rather than rectifying the existing fault in the system.
Referring to the announcement of strike by the MeECL employees, Nongrum said, “If they strike tomorrow people will suffer in the state. Let us give them their salary. It is their right.”
