TURA, May 8: With Meghalaya facing with one of its worst-ever power crisis, residents of the state may just have to continue their wait for uninterrupted electricity supply.
Informing this over phone, Power Minister AT Mondal on Monday said that until the state gets a good amount of rainfall in the coming days and weeks, load-shedding will continue.
“All our power sources depend on water being available and with all rivers in the state running dry, the situation is grim. We are now utilising the time provided to repair the infrastructure that has been damaged so that once we are back on track, we can ensure minimum interruptions,” informed Mondal.
He added that the government is looking very closely at the Ganol project in Garo Hills and it will ensure its commissioning this year. “Once that is done, there will definitely be relief for the residents of the state, especially in the region of Garo Hills. The project should be up and running soon,” he added.
Meanwhile, residents of Garo Hills have been taken aback by the MePDCL’s load-shedding schedule in the region, calling the same senseless.
“Tell us who shuts off electricity during the hours when we really need our sleep. Imagine working through the entire day to come back home and sleep and the lines are cut at 11 pm, the time when everyone prepares for a shut eye. This makes no sense in any way and needs a rethink. How can we sleep without electricity in the night during these hot summer months with there being no electricity for over six hours in the night,” asked AM Marak, a resident of Tura.
A Phulbari resident, Peter A. Sangma, was even more scathing in his remarks, calling the move discriminatory and based on whim.
“We are not in Shillong or a hill station where we don’t need electricity during the nights. It is not a luxury anymore. We need our ceiling fans to work to get some sleep. In what world are these people living that they can’t understand the seasons in Garo Hills? Is Meghalaya only meant to cater to everyone other than those in Garo Hills,” asked Peter.
Similar thoughts were expressed by many residents who all sought an answer from the Power department authorities on why the reduction of load-shedding times from 10 hours to 8 hours has made the situation even more unbearable for Garo Hills residents because of the odd timing for the power cuts.
The situation has been made worse for residents over the fact that the region is looking less likely to have serious rains at least not until the end of this week according to the weather forecast.
“We are in a really serious situation currently. Water woes apart, we can only pray to the rain gods to relent while also praying to the ‘gods in the current government’ to do something at least to ease the woes of those who continue to live second class citizen lives,” felt another Tura resident, Maxbirth Momin.
