Twin problems temporarily resolved

February 16 would be remembered as a day when the twin problems of load shedding and transporters strike were resolved. The first problem was resolved after the Government of Meghalaya came to the rescue of the MeECL by availing a loan of Rs 1345 crore under the Aatma Nirbhar Bharat scheme. For Meghalaya this amount would all go into debt servicing and delayed payment for power purchase. MeECL is beset with many problems but some stand out and need to be addressed immediately. The per unit cost of power in Meghalaya is perhaps the lowest in the country and the state has been subsidising consumers for decades. This is no longer tenable. Electricity tariff has to be revised if consumers want uninterrupted power. The problem with Meghalaya is that every issue is linked to politics; even a business decision that is needed to put the MeECL back on the rails. Some years ago a tariff revision was vehemently opposed by the Rangbah Shnong. The MeECL did not have the muscle and clout to push through the decision. The political leadership has always been pliable to extraneous and unreasonable demands from sundry actors. No state can corporate business can run like this. During the 7-hour power shutdown since Sunday February 14, people were up in arms and questioning how there can be power cuts when students are still being taught via online classes and professionals who were working from home found themselves short-circuited. No one offered any solution. There were only questions and allegations levelled at government; some calling this a failed state.
Those elected to govern the state cannot keep looking at safeguarding their vote banks and postponing hard decisions. Inability to decide even the viable market rate of electricity supplied to consumers is what has brought Meghalaya to the present state. A corporation cannot be run like a government institution. It has to make profit to pay its staff with adequate funds for repairs and maintenance. Right now restructuring the MeECL; cutting down flab; tariff revision and doing away with power subsidies to large companies that make huge profits but plough back nothing to the state, are priorities. The Corporation must be better managed and the workforce cut down and employed elsewhere by the Government. Unnecessary staff piled on the Corporation by politicians down the years cannot be the onus of the MeECL.
On the revision of petrol and diesel rates not much can be said since the prices fluctuate everyday but here too the prices must be rationalised since government relies heavily on revenues accruing from different taxable products in order to run the state.
Finally a question needs to be asked to the Power Department. What is the status of the MoUs signed with different power producing companies since December 2007? If all that Meghalaya is doing today is to buy power from NTPC, NEEPCo, PGCIL etc., then isn’t MeECL a white elephant that has to be jettisoned like the other losing concerns?