People who come to Meghalaya from Mumbai and other states wonder at the frequent power outages. They don’t recall having power cuts, come hail or storm. In Meghalaya it takes a small weather event for power to be shut down. This is what the state has achieved in 50 years. Neither the Chief Minister not the Power Minister give any hope to the public that the power scenario will improve any time soon. On the contrary those in the know say that several power utilities have stopped supplying power to Meghalaya for reasons best known to the MDA Government and which is a state secret. Daily there are shut down notices for different areas of Shillong and all this is happening because the equipments used- from the electric posts to the transformers – to the power generating turbines are all of inferior quality. Politicians, contractors and engineers have all milched the Meghalaya Electricity Corporation Ltd. (MeECL) since the time it was a Board. Corporatisation has changed nothing; not the work culture; not the employment pattern nor the realization of dues from major industrial consumers. Transmission and Distribution losses which have a major impact on the Corporation and add to its loss-making has not been addressed. Instead, Meghalaya is a fertile playground for all kinds of dubious businessmen who come to the State with the intention of making a quick buck by paying off a few people in the system.
In the latest Union budget 2022-23 there is a clear focus towards privatisation in the energy sector, both of assets and of supply chain, especially in the existing sectors of power, coal, and natural gas. While it has provided some allocation and measures for clean energy, it likely is not enough in the direction that the sector was hoping for. In the areas of clean energy the Union Government has given a big push to electric vehicles. However as of now the biggest challenge is the time associated with charging the batteries of the electric vehicle models. The Central Government has sought to address this issue by establishing battery swapping stations in the country. NITI Aayog is working on a policy which will set the standards for interoperable batteries connector dimensions that will allow a seamless battery swapping framework. These are ambitious goals that the country is working on but where is Meghalaya in all of this?.
Even the Education sector with a focus on televised lessons as enunciated in the budget 2022-23, would require uninterrupted energy supply. But is that even possible in Meghalaya especially in the rural areas of the state where at times even charging a mobile phone is a huge challenge due to frequent power cuts. While states like Assam have a clear vision on where they are headed, in Meghalaya politics dominates over development and people accept all this meekly.
