By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Feb 17: After remaining silent for more than two weeks, during which the common man bore the brunt of an indefinite strike by cabbies over high fuel rates, the National People’s Party (NPP), Shillong city, wasted no time to heap praise on the NPP-led MDA government as soon as it reduced prices of petrol and withdrew load-shedding.
“We have a government which is committed to address the sufferings of the people. The government has been able to withdraw load-shedding within 48 hours after it was imposed. This clearly reflects the capability of the leadership of this government to impress upon the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) to stop regulation of power to the state,” NPP Shillong City working president, Anthony Nongbri told reporters here on Wednesday.
Stating that the pending dues to different power generating companies have been there for years, Nongbri defended the state government saying that the “MDA is trying its best to clear all the pending dues to ensure interrupted power supply in the state.”
Accusing the Congress of trying to publicise the issue, he said the Opposition should have played a more constructive role, while claiming that it was not right on its part to “hijack the issue for political mileage”.
He also cited the examples of the load-shedding patterns in other Northeastern states like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, claiming that “load-shedding (in these states) is between six and eight hours.”
Nongbri further said fuel prices in Shillong were one of the lowest in the country, much lower than even metropolitan cities like Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.