SHILLONG, March 11: MLAs from the Opposition on Thursday decided to move a privilege motion against Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma after accusing him of misleading the House on the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of 2007.
The PPA was signed between the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the then Congress-led Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government.
Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma confirmed to reporters that the members of the Opposition would table a privilege motion against the CM during the ongoing Budget session.
According to him, the CM had attempted to misinform and mislead the House with a “pre-determined motive”.
“We cannot allow such unwanted precedence to continue in the future,” the Opposition leader said.
He said the CM had misled the House by claiming that the government had to pay Rs 11 crore every month to the NTPC due to the agreement signed in 2007 although the state does not take power from the corporation.
“I have a copy of the agreement. There is no mention of the Rs 11 crore required to be paid to the NTPC by the state government every month,” the Congress leader said.
He repeatedly asked the government to pinpoint the clause in the PPA which mentions that the government has to pay Rs 11 crore per month to the NTPC after the installation of the last unit of thermal plant at Bongaigaon in Assam as claimed by the CM.
“Has the Chief Minister read every page of the PPA?” Mukul questioned.
Accusing the CM of trying to play to the gallery, the Opposition leader said the worst thing is that he spread misinformation which amounts to breach of privilege of the House.
“This was done with a sheer mala fide and pre-determined intent to hide facts and this has come from none other than the leader of the House,” he said.
Mukul, who was the Power Minister in 2007, said the agreement was the culmination of a long-drawn exercise involving the states in the Northeast and the North East Regional Power Committee with the Union government.
Stating that the PPA was a standard agreement which was approved by the Union government and all northeastern states had signed it, Mukul said the tariff for drawing power from any project is determined by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission.
Continuing his attack, he asked why the MPA government did not cancel the PPA if it was full of loopholes.
“That time, they cancelled all the good projects such as Mawphu, Umngi and others but why did they not cancel this PPA?” he asked.
Mukul advised the government to engage in meaningful discussions to bail the power sector out of the financial crisis.
In his reply, Power Minister James Sangma slammed the Opposition leader for sniffing a conspiracy in everything and asked him not to engage in character assassination of ministers based on mere speculations.
Commenting on load-shedding, James said it was there even before the MDA rose to power.
“This government has taken measures and now the power situation has improved drastically,” James claimed.
Reiterating that the previous Congress-led government had not honoured its commitment of providing funds for terminal benefits of the employees of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited during its unbundling, he said, “We have inherited the legacy of misgovernance from the Congress.”
Referring to a “nonsensical” clause in the PPA which, purportedly, will remain in force till 2044, James said, “Your government has tied us down in this manner.”
At this, Mukul stood up once more to ask the Power Minister to pinpoint the amount of Rs 11 crore in the PPA, but the latter replied that he had not made the comment.Meanwhile, the state Assembly, which witnessed high-quality debates and discussions in the past, is now seeing a new trend where the MLAs from ruling and Opposition parties seem to be more focused on blame game over unresolved issues instead of discussing and debating them.
Last year, they blamed each other for not doing much on the issue of Inner Line Permit (ILP). This year, the two sides are going after each other over the 2007 PPA. The CM said he favours more discussions and debates on the issue.
“When allegations are made and clarifications are not given, it appears the Opposition is correct. So, we thought we must clarify,” he said.
Stressing on constructive discussions, he said he does not want to continue the blame game. Asserting that governance is a continuous process, he said the blame game should not be started by the Opposition.
“There has been a lot of pressure on us due to some unresolved issues. We are blamed as we have not been able to solve the ILP and border issues so far. But these have been there for many years. So, instead of resorting to blame game, one should suggest the way forward,” he added.
Interestingly, the CM continued his tirade against the Congress-led MDA government even after the end of the day’s session.
Sangma told reporters that the state government that time should not have accepted an agreement under which a fixed charge has to be paid to NTPC for 25 years.
“The fixed monthly charge keep on fluctuating and even the opposition leader had stated that it is Rs 13 crore now p.m. which is scary,” Sangma added.
Terming the PPA as a lopsided agreement, the CM said, “It is a legacy brought from 2007 and even the opposition has admitted it,” Sangma said while asking the Opposition not to arbitrarily demand the resignation of the Cm and the Power minister.
“The issue has a genesis and we never talked about it because our focus is on resolving it,” the CM said while adding that the MDA Government is not here to find faults but to come up with a solution to the power crisis.
