Meghalaya Govt to move Centre for release of 2nd tranche to clear power dues

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaApril 22, 2021

The state government will soon move the Centre for releasing the second tranche of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan loan which amounting to over Rs 600 crore in order to clear outstanding dues to power generation companies.

“We will be moving with the Government of India for the second tranche (of the loan) and hopefully we will be able to resolve the issues (of the power sector),” Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma told reporters after chairing a review meeting on Thursday.

The Centre had earlier released the first tranche of the loan. According to him, the government is expected to get over Rs 600 crore in the second tranche.

Sangma however lamented that the entire pressure of the last 10-15 years in terms of liabilities have come on the present government during the past 2-3 months.

“We have been asked (by the power generation companies) to clear liabilities which have been pending for the past many years…you are talking about Rs 1,300 crore being forced to pay within a matter of two months,” he said.

Stating that the kind of pressure that is being put on the MeECL to some extent is ‘unreasonable’, Sangma said, “Space should have been given to MeECL to be able to pay in a time bound manner within six months or one year…”

Claiming that the government has been able to overcome challenges being faced due to such pressure, the Chief Minister said, “Because of the homework that is being done by the MeECL officials, we have manage to clear 50 percent (of the dues) and we are hopeful that in the next few days and weeks we are able to do the rest.”

The state had recently witnessed frequent load shedding of 8-9 hours after the power generation companies have decided to regulate power supply to the state due to non-payment of pending dues.

Asked, the Chief Minister said that the government is exploring the possibilities to manage the situation better.

“As was said this is a very difficult time in the sense that April is a period when we face this kind of a situation but we realize that if we are to rationalize the power usage then throughout the year we can do a balancing act rather than having 8-9 hours loadshedding, it is better we have a standard 1-2 hours. There is a possibility where we may have to go for that keeping in mind the high amount of expenditure that we have to incur – all these are being examined, we have not taken any decision as yet but we are exploring all the possibilities…,” he said.

Stressing the need to adopt some strict measures to streamline the functioning of MeECL, Sangma said, “There are so many factors (regarding) so much of dues that are there – so therefore some stern measures will be taken up, I cannot share with you right now as the roadmap is being prepared. We are exploring and seeing what possibilities are there to stabilize the MeECL.”

On the MeECL taking action against defaulters, the Chief Minister said that close to Rs 70 crore have been recovered from such consumers.

“As lots of these recoveries are taking place I also take this opportunity to urge our consumers, I am not saying everybody but there are certain consumers who have not been able to clear (their dues). There are some cases which have come up in Shillong where domestic lines have been used for commercial lines. There are cases which have come up where the same consumer has got 20-30 connections – all these kinds of irregularities are there in MeECL which we are trying to resolve,” he said.

According to Sangma, the government is also working on different mechanisms to create more efficiency in the system. “It is a lot of work to be done, we are hopeful as work has started and we are hopeful in the coming days, months and years, we will see a good transformation of MeECL becoming a financially more stronger organization,” he asserted.