So Meghalaya’s power woes are about to resurface come March 20 or so we are told by NEEPCo the power generation and distribution company. For those outside of the MeECL it is difficult to connect the dots and understand at what point the Power Grid comes in and NEEPCo goes out and vice versa. Recently the Power Grid had given a green signal not to disconnect power to the MeECL grid. But that soon turned out to be a short term agreement. Meghalaya went back into load shedding mode and citizens suffered six hourly power cuts and longer in some districts. Then the Power Minister gave us hope that the power cut story has reached its concluding chapter. Now NEEPCo has come up with a new diktat – pay or suffer power cuts. The previous Congress-led government has been blamed for a bad deal signed by the then Power Minister, Mukul Sangma with the Bongaigaon based National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) entailing an annual payment of over Rs 130 crore to the company despite not purchasing power from it in the past 3 years. The deal is locked for the next 25 years and the Meghalaya Government, would have to pay Rs 3,300 crore approximately to the NTPC in the next 25 years. This is what Chief Minister Conrad Sangma explained on the floor of the House.
The Congress took umbrage at this allegation and raised a stink. It threatened the Chief Minister with a privilege motion. The question is whether the Chief Minister had breached any privilege by informing the House about the power deals that have put Meghalaya in a soup.
As per the Electricity Act 2003 the power sector was corporatized to introduce competition, protect consumer’s interests and provide power for all. The Act provides for a National Electricity Policy, Rural Electrification, Open access in transmission, phased open access in distribution, mandatory SERCs, license free generation and distribution, power trading, mandatory metering and stringent penalties for theft of electricity. It is a comprehensive legislation replacing the Electricity Act 1910, Electricity Supply Act 1948 and Electricity Regulatory Commission Act 1998. The aim was to push the sector onto a trajectory of sound commercial growth and sustainability but obviously Meghalaya did not comply with the rules of the game. We are yet to hear of any stringent penalties on power thefts and disconnection of power supply of the defaulting companies that run into crores of rupees. Why? Will the Government come out with a white paper on the actual position of the MeECL and future plans to turn this corporation into a financially viable one? The blame game over MeECL should end. All MLAs should put their heads together to get the MeECL out of the present mess. Enough is enough!