Congress refuse to constructively engage for making MeECL financially viable: NPP

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 7, 2021

The ruling National People’s Party (NPP) has accused the opposition Congress of refusing to have any form of constructive engagement to make the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) financially viable.

This came as a reaction to the statement made by the Congress leader Zenith Sangma asking the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma to stop indulging in corruption while alleging the state government of trying to lease out the assets of the MeECL to private entities.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, NPP spokesman Nickey Nongkhlaw said the NPP-led government had invited all stakeholders in the past, including the opposition Congress, to have a dialogue so that a road map could be charted out to make MeECL financially viable.

“But the Congress refused to have any form of constructive engagement, despite knowing that the current financial constraints of MeECL is a problem created by the Mukul Sangma-led Congress itself,” Nongkhlaw said while asking if the Congress only good at mindless criticism and corruption?

Stating that it is ironic that the Congress is even using the word ‘privatisation’, the NPP spokesman alleged that “In 2017, when the Congress was in power, Mukul Sangma came the closest to privatise MeECL when he signed deals with Renew Joule Private Ltd to take away the power department’s mandate of setting up power plants. He targeted Ri-Bhoi district, Mendipathar and Ampati for this privatisation deal. In the same year, he signed deals with ETA Star Infrastructure Ltd, Brijraj Power Metallics Ltd and MSGC Power Ltd for taking away small thermal power projects of MeECL and handing them over to these private companies.”

“Mukul gave away a huge amount of MeECL’s money to these companies, literally making the department crippled with debt. When members of the society raised concerns on this move of Mukul, only then he called off the deals after already causing the required damage to the department. What sort of an arrangement did Mukul have with these private players? Why did he use MeECL’s money for a private deal? While he may come up with another lie to defend this move of his, there is a known explanation to this,” he added.

The NPP leader further alleged that Mukul, after causing damage to the MeECL by using private players, further put the power department in jeopardy by handing over the cancelled projects to NEEPCO.

“This further dealt a damage to the MeECL as that meant having a financial obligation towards the NEEPCO for this development. No wonder power cuts were rampant during Mukul’s time because he put MeECL in such a bad financial position that it did not have any more money left to fulfil the obligations, including the bad agreements that the Congress signed in 2007,” he said.

On Zenith mentioning that the Congress will knock the judiciary’s door for a probe into MeECL, despite the current inquiry panel consisting of three respectable former judges, Nongkhlaw said the Congress is willing to go the distance to disrespect the credibility of the members of the inquiry panel.

“However, even if the Congress is willing to fall to that level just to make a public image, they are free to knock any legal doors. If Mukul and his brother cannot have a constructive engagement, the government does not need lectures from them. In fact, if they had some amount of decency left in them for misleading the public all these years, they wouldn’t have contested elections at all. However, today Mukul stands as the leader of the opposition and his brother is an MLA from the corruption-riddled Congress,” he stated.

“As power hungry as these two brothers are, perhaps it is time for them to introspect into their positions in the party, which is anyway struggling to hold itself together due to the severe infighting and internal power struggles. There is a reason why the Congress party is being wiped off the map of India,” he further added.

Nongkhlaw also reminded that for eight years that the Mukul Sangma-led Congress government was unfortunately in power, the state faced power cuts for at least four months every year, for more than four hours every day and that too in the period when students appeared for board exams.

That is about 3,840 hours or 160 days of complete blackout for the people of Meghalaya which the Congress government deliberately put the people through, he said adding today, such a corrupt and dictatorial Congress party is lecturing on the power department.

“But we are not surprised that Mukul and Zenith are desperately trying to build a public image and repeatedly trying to fool the public on the same issue,” he said.

Stating that MeECL is Mukul and Zenith’s favourite topic, the NPP leader said, “Both brothers know that the money they looted out of MeECL in 8 years, and the disastrous situation in which they left the department, is definitely a challenge for anyone to recover from in a short time. That is why when they were booted out of power, it became their easiest point of attack.”

He also slammed Zenith for alleging that the government is trying to lease out MeECL assets to private entities, despite the Chief Minister having clearly mentioned in the past that there was no question of giving away MeECL assets to private bodies.

Hence, Zenith’s statement on NITCON is simply laughable and goes to show how he and his brother appear unprepared in front of the media with no research or facts whatsoever. Perhaps they are confused on where to focus more time and energy — in the Congress party to try and consolidate power internally, or in the media to sell their lies.

It’s amusing how Zenith in his statement himself recognises the NITCON as a public sector undertaking (PSU), and in the same breath says that the government is leasing away assets to “private bodies.”

Does he not know the difference between a PSU, which is government-owned, and a private entity? Perhaps he needs help in knowing the difference between the two so that next time he appears in the media, at least he is somewhat aware, he said.

On Zenith’s alleging that the current government is trying to monetise unproductive MeECL assets, Nongkhaw said it is not clear whether Zenith gave a thought to what stance he was going to take in front of the media because at no point in the press conference did he justify why monetisation of unproductive assets is wrong.