SHILLONG, April 22: The Meghalaya government has cleared about 50% of the total loan received under the first tranche of the Atma Nirbhar scheme to clear the pending dues of power generating companies. It is now moving the Centre to release the second tranche to clear the remaining 50% of dues.
Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Thursday said the Power department has been under tremendous stress because of the liabilities of MeECL accumulating over the last 10-15 years, including dues of more than Rs. 500 crore each to NTPC and NEEPCO.
“After pressure from different generation companies, we went ahead with the Atma Nirbhar loan and the first tranche has been released. We have taken a decision to move the Centre for the second tranche for us to resolve these issues,” he said after the meeting of the Power department officials with
The Chief Minister said this after the meeting of the officials of the Power and Finance departments and MeECL. He claimed that meticulous homework helped the state government clear 50% of the dues and “hopefully we will be able to clear the rest of the dues”.
He, however, could not specify the amount to be cleared. “I don’t know the exact numbers, but we will be getting another Rs. 600 crore to clear Rs 600 crore plus,” he said.
The Chief Minister insisted that the dues pertain to the past since the current bills are being paid to the generation companies on a regular basis.
The Power department felt the pressure because NTPC and NEEPCO served notices to suddenly clear dues of Rs. 1,300 crore accumulated over the last 10-15 years within two-three months, Sangma said.
“The kind of pressure on the MeECL is to some extent unreasonable,” he added.
He said the MeECL should have been given six months to a year’s time to clear the dues in a time-bound manner.
Insisting that the state government is exploring ways of managing the power situation better, the Chief Minister said: “April is a very difficult time but we have realised that if we are to rationalise the power usage, we can do more balancing act throughout the year.”
The balancing act could be to have a standard hour or two of load-shedding instead of 8-9 hours a day, he said, adding that the state government may go for strict measures to streamline the functioning of MeECL.
Sangma urged the consumers to regularise their connections and clear their dues while pointing out that Rs. 70 crore has been recovered from defaulters. He said some consumers have been using their domestic lines for commercial purposes and some consumers have 20-30 connections.
“We are also working on different mechanisms to create more efficiency in the system. We are hopeful of transformation and MeECL becoming a financially strong organisation,” he added.
Vowing to take action against those indulging in power theft, the Chief Minister said the MeECL has been asked to take suitable action against the major power pilferers. He declined to comment on the allegations of corruption against some engineers and officials of the Power department and the corporations.
