Load shedding to continue in Meghalaya, Govt taking steps to resolve power crisis: James Sangma

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 26, 2021

Power Minister James K Sangma said load shedding will continue for some time due to shortage of power supply in the state.

He informed this after meeting a delegation of the Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP) who have raised concern over the decision of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited to impose load shedding at a time when students are appearing for their different examinations on Monday.

Sangma said the extra load shedding which took place yesterday was unfortunate. 

“We are now working towards resolving (the problem). This is something which is regretted but we are trying to ensure that students are not affected as these are examination times and many students are appearing for online exams and we understand that it is imperative that they should get uninterrupted supply of power at this juncture,” he added. 

The minister further informed that the MeECL is trying to make alternative arrangements to make sure that the load shedding is restricted only for 3 hours for domestic consumers and 10-12 hours for industries. 

“This schedule will continue for sometime because of so many reasons as there is a shortage of power supply,” he said.  

Asked, Sangma said he has assured the delegation that the government is also concerned about the issue and that it has caused a lot of inconveniences to the people of the state. 

“I have explained to them that these kinds of things are happening because of regulation by power generating and transmission companies and also because of OTPC palatana unit which originally was to shut down only one of their units is now having to shut down both their units resulting in zero generation – That is why we are having a very big shortfall and suddenly we are having these extended hours of load shedding.

We are hopeful and we are taking steps and measures to reduce the load shedding…,” he further assured.