SHILLONG, June 29: “We thank the government,” read a statement by Congress Spokesperson Zenith Sangma, who was, however, not entirely impressed with the MDA on the most recent development in the state.
It is worth mentioning here that the government has removed Arunkumar Kembhavi from the post of Chairman-cum-Managing Director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) and in his place, appointed Additional Chief Secretary RV Suchiang.
“We thank the government for taking the first step in responding to our demand by removing the present CMD and bringing in a senior and experienced officer who is in the rank of Addl. Chief Secretary and in constituting the Inquiry Commission for investigating the several scams in MeECL,” the Congress Spokesperson said in the statement. “…thanks to the leaders of different regional political parties and other socio-political activists in supporting the demands which facilitated to reach to this level,” he added.
Nonetheless, Congress seems to be dissatisfied with the “piecemeal approach” of the government, maintaining that it is tantamount to ignoring the gravity and the urgency of the matter.
Zenith also maintained that the incumbent Power Minister James Sangma should be dropped or he may “gracefully” resign as minister. “Otherwise, he can still influence and there can be foul play and the very purpose of constituting this Inquiry Commission will be defeated. It should be done immediately without any further delay because we all know that Justice delayed means justice denied,” he added.
Talking about “scams” in MeECL, the Rangsakona MLA claimed that there are several of them in the corporation which are to be investigated specifically.
Explaining further, he said that there is another likely scam taking place in Power department in the name of ‘Self Identified Power Project’. The Expression of Interest (EOI) for the same has already been floated in a “suspicious” manner, he said while pointing out that as interstate and inter-district movement is restricted, competition therefore cannot take place, while adding that in the process, “pre-selected” firms will only be awarded with the project. “It can be well understood that there is a mala-fide intention and is allegedly well-scripted modus operandi of these people who are in helm of affairs, scripted by someone who is from outside. We, therefore, demand that this EOI should be cancelled immediately in the greater interest of the state,” the statement added.
Stating that the Congress has been pointing out issues in the MeECL time and again, Zenith said that as per his calculation the Corporation may suffer losses of more than Rs 1,500 crore this year in response to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s statement that the unit will incur a loss of Rs 900 crore in the current financial year.
Pensioners thank Kembhavi
On the sidelines, the MeECL Pensioners’ Association, which represents pensioners and family pensioners numbering 3,600 families, have expressed gratitude to the outgoing CMD of the MeECL, Arunkumar Kembhavi, for his services to the corporation and to the pensioners’ community. “…he has done a commendable job to revamp the MeECL while it was drifting to the brink due to mismanagement for a very long time, especially in revenue sector,” the association maintained.
The association, in a statement issued here on Tuesday, said that when Kembhavi took charge of the Corporation last year, the pensioners were facing great difficulties over non-receipt of pension for three months due to introduction of a new guideline which checked ‘Life Certificate’ of the pensioners. “On the very first day of his assumption of office, he took keen interest to review the whole system of works which relates to the pension and pensioners. And by doing so, he cleared the payment of pension which had been pending for the past few months,” it said.
Before relinquishing his office, he also ordered for clearance of pension for the months of April and May which was discontinued in accordance with the order passed by the MSERC for the financial year 2017-18, the association added.
The association also thanked the state government for extending succour to the MeECL while also expressing happiness to learn that the corporation’s administration has been handed over to another senior IAS officer.
