By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, March 19: The fear of the residents in the state has come true as the Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL) on Friday announced an 11-hour load-shedding following the regulation of power by the NEEPCO.
A few hours later, Power Minister James Sangma informed that the state government has released the payment to NEEPCO but the corporation is unable to cancel the load-shedding notice immediately due to procedural issues.
“We understand and empathise with the students who are preparing for their examinations and we regret the inconvenience caused to the public in general. We assure the public and consumers that load-shedding will be discontinued in the next 48 hours,” Sangma added.
The MePDCL issued a notification on Friday evening announcing imposition of load-shedding from midnight of March 20.
As per the announcement, Shillong will have 11 hours of load-shedding but with gaps.
From midnight till 6 am, areas which will be affected are Garo Hills and Shillong and from 6 am to 9 am, Jaintia Hills and Ri Bhoi (public) will be affected. From 9 am till 12 noon, areas which will be affected include Khasi Hills, Jaintia Hills industries and Shillong while the affected areas from 12 noon till 2 pm will be Jaintia Hills, Jaintia Hills industries, Ri Bhoi (public) and Garo Hills.
As per the announcement, areas under load-shedding from 2 pm to 4 pm will be Khasi Hills including Shillong, Jaintia Hills and Garo Hills while areas to be affected from 4 pm to 6 pm will be Jaintia Hills, Jaintia Hills industries and Byrnihat industries.
During the period between 6 pm and 8 pm, the affected areas will be Byrnihat industries and Ri Bhoi (public) while areas of Byrnihat industries will face power cut again from 8 pm till midnight.
This is the third time in less than two months that the consumers of the state are forced to bear the brunt of load-shedding.
The decision on the latest power cut was taken by the state government. It resorted to the measure as the North Eastern Regional Load Dispatch Centre has regulated the supply of power to the MePDCL after the state distribution company failed to clear outstanding dues to the NEEPCO even after the latter relentlessly pursued the matter at various levels.
A government source said the department has already processed the payment for the NEEPCO from the Rural Electrification Corporation Limited and the Power Finance Corporation.
“All procedures from the government’s side have been completed and the matter is under process,” sources said but refused to divulge the amount paid to NEEPCO.
The total dues, as on March 15 which the MePDCL has to clear to the NEEPCO, are Rs 504.41 crore. The NEEPCO mulls regulating power for six month or till such time the MePDCL liquidates its outstanding dues of more than 45 days, whichever is earlier.
Meghalaya is drawing 147.53 MW of power from the different sources of the NEEPCO. The cash-strapped Power Department is availing Rs 1,345.72-crore Atmanirbhar Bharat loan to clear all its dues to power companies.
NEEPCO issue
resolved: CM
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma also confirmed that the issue with NEEPCO has been resolved.
Informing that he had called a meeting of the Power department to discuss the issue, the CM said, “I had called the meeting at my level and we discussed and resolved most of the issues.”
Sangma pointed out that the issue with NEEPCO was that they wanted the second instalment of the first tranche.
“That release was taking a bit of time because of some internal issue which MeECL had to resolve with REC and PFS the two agencies responsible for releasing the Atmanirbhar loan,” he said.
“The second tranche of the loan amounting to around Rs 360 crore would also be paid to NTPC and Power Grid,” he added.
To a query that load-shedding has become a recurring problem, the CM gave a cryptic reply, saying, “This is the solution that we are doing. The reason you see all this happening is because we are finding a solution. We are moving forward.”