SHILLONG, June 9: Taking shots at the incumbent Chief Managing Director (CMD) of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL), Arunkumar Kembhavi, the State Congress Spokesperson, Zenith Sangma, put the blame on the CMD’s “inexperience” for the imbroglio regarding the release of terminal benefits of the Corporations’ retired employees.
“These problems are coming mainly due to placing of inexperienced people in the rank of Joint/Additional Secretary-level officers as CMD. The previous government never placed junior inexperienced officers as CMD. It was always Additional Chief/Chief Secretary-level officer, who were CMD of MeECL, be it WMS Pariat, Barkos Warjri or PS Thangkiew,” Zenith said in a statement issued here on Wednesday.
It may be recalled that the Coordination Committee of Registered MeECL (Employees) Associations and Unions (CCORMAU) has threatened to file an FIR against the Chief Secretary, Secretary of Power department and the MeECL CMD if the government does not release their terminal benefits.
Talking about how “experience matters and plays an important role in governance”, the Congress spokesperson spoke highly of the previous government under which the erstwhile MeSEB was corporatised into the MeECL with three subsidiaries — MePDCL, MePGCL and MePTCL.
Zenith Sangma remembered the then CMD, WMS Pariat, who was also the Chief Secretary to the Government of Meghalaya, and during whose tenure the corporatisation of MeSEB was completed.
“He (WMS Pariat) had initiated the formation of Pension Corpus Fund. But as I said, governance is a continuous process, and the same might have been under study. The question, however, is that whether the previous government ever stopped the pension. It ensured that dues to employees and pensioners are paid,” Zenith Sangma, who is also the MLA of Rangsakona Constituency, said.
“The present CMD has a habit of playing to the gallery. In his post after obtaining stay to NTPC dues, he wrote that the previous government did not do much scrutiny. He should check the records which state it was the previous government who wrote to NTPC in 2015 declining to take the power,” Zenith claimed.
Attacking Kembhavi for his alleged political statements, the Congress spokesperson said, “The present CMD has created bad precedence (by giving political statements). Who has authorised or empowered him to give political statements? Or is he being instrumental to the political party in the government?”
However, Zenith Sangma admitted that the CMD is working under pressure while stating that he has nothing personal against him. “But his statements are derogatory and not acceptable,” he said.
