By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 15: The Opposition Congress has come down heavily on the state government for resorting to yet another load-shedding, terming it as absolutely unacceptable. At the same time, the UDP, an ally of the MDA coalition, has urged the state government to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the state.
“I cannot imagine that even in the 21st century we are still facing this situation,” Congress senior leader Ampareen Lyngdoh said on Monday.
Making it clear that the state government has to answer for the power woes, Lyngdoh said she would take up the issue during the upcoming Budget session of the Assembly.
“As citizens of the state we will have to tell the government of the day to take cognizance of this mess and make sure that power cuts are done away with,” the Congress leader said.
Condemning the timings of the power cuts, she said, “One cannot expect citizens to wake up in the morning and finish off all their tasks before 9 am just because the power cut occurs from 9 am to 12 noon. Then again when one returns home at the end of their day’s work you have another power cut from 7pm to 8pm. There is yet another outage from midnight till 3 am.”
Stating that the load-shedding has disrupted normal lives she wondered why the state government has been unable to maintain adequate power supply.
“We look forward to the upcoming Assembly session so that we can discuss and debate this issue and find out where the problem exactly lies,” she added.
To a query that the state was once power surplus and was even distributing power to Tripura and neighboring Bangladesh, she said, “It’s a tough question to respond to but I only know one thing; once you’re in government you have to be responsible. When questions are asked you’re expected to reply and you just have to handle whatever situation comes your way”.
Meanwhile, the UDP urged the state government to ensure uninterrupted power supply in the state and take appropriate measures to address the problems of the power sector once and for all. “This has to be taken as top priority considering the potential the state has in the power sector,” UDP general secretary Jemino Mawthoh said.
“The sudden announcement of load-shedding in the state during this time of crisis when online communication is emphasised in all establishments, especially in educational institutes is unprecedented. The public at large are suffering and the loss in working hours is tremendous”, Mawthoh said.
