SHILLONG, April 26: Congress MLA, Zenith Sangma has slammed the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) as well as the Power department for flouting existing norms in the recent transfer and promotion of officers.
Reacting to the appointment of Chief Engineer MK Chetri as the Director, Distribution on the recommendation of the Corporation’s Chairman-Cum-Managing Director, Arunkumar Kembhavi, Sangma said the appointment was a reflection of the style of functioning of the Power department and the state government.
“This post of Director, Distribution fell vacant on 01/09/2020 and the Govt was sleeping for the last 7 months. This type of promotion creates nepotism, hatred and bad blood amongst the colleagues,” Zenith said in a statement.
He said he had pointed out several times that Chief Minister, Conrad K Sangma and Power Minister, James Sangma were fond of appointing junior officers to high posts in MeECL. “This is nothing but to enable them to fulfil their greed. This is their modus operandi,” Zenith said. He also said that the Power Minister and the CMD of the MeECL were busy trying to shield themselves from the barrage of enquiries over Saubhagya, power purchase, load-shedding and undue advantages meted out to Byrnihat Industries Association.
“We demand that promotions should be done as per fair practice and norms and any action or decision of the government should be always in the interest of the people of the state,” he said.
The orders of the Power department have been viewed as “freak and “unprecedented in the history of the MeECL” by the officers from its three services – Administrative, Engineering and Accounts.
They said the orders to appoint the junior-most officer clearly point to nepotism.
Insiders said the orders were an eye opener since all the alleged scams including Saubhagya, Enterprise Resource Planning Project, smart metering, special tariff to Byrnihat Industries Association, manpower outsourcing from Uttar Pradesh firm and others were under the different offices of the Director, Distribution.
