SHILLONG, Aug 9: Justice (retired) RN Mishra of the Allahabad High Court will head the probe into alleged corruption in the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).
The state government selected him after the notified chairperson, Justice Ifaqat Ali Khan of the same court, had withdrawn his consent to head the probe panel as he met with an accident.
The other members of the panel remain unchanged. Retired IAS officer Manor Kumar will be the administrative member while retired Executive Director of REC Ltd, Sunil Kumar will be the technical member.
Sources said although the panel has not yet officially started the exercise, the members met once in Delhi and decided how they should go about it.
It was learnt the panel wants the state government to set up an office in New Delhi apart from one in Shillong since there are curbs on travelling during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The inquiry will be carried out virtually as and when required.
According to the notification issued by the Chief Secretary on July 29, the committee will inquire records and make recommendations concerning the functioning of MeECL and its three subsidiary companies – Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Ltd (MePGCL), Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (MePTCL) and Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (MePDCL).
The probe will cover the period from April 1, 2010 to March 31, 2021.
The committee will critically examine procurement rules and procedures of MeECL and its subsidiaries and benchmark the same against procurement rules and procedures of Government of Meghalaya and some of the better-run energy corporations in other states of the Northeast.
Further, it will examine at length the Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) losses, covering aspects of faulty metering, under billing, poor billing efficiency, poor collection efficiency, billing and collection from industries, pilferage of power and lack of accountability as well as the steps taken by MeECL management to address the problem of high AT&C losses and whether these have had the desired results.
The panel will also look into the recruitment procedures of MeECL and its subsidiaries, their adequacy, examine some of the bulk hiring, recruitment made and the issue of surplus/deficit manpower across departments in the corporation.
The inquiry will also cover training of personnel and accountability of key personnel. The committee has been asked to submit its report within three months.
