Cong slams Govt over NEEPCO’s notice

Speaking to media persons, Congress legislator from East Shillong Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the chief minister and the power minister had given assurances in the floor of the House putting to rest all anxieties related to the power department.

“I had appealed to the government not to once again pronounce a hoax withdrawal of load shedding then again today, we see a circulation of yet another NEEPCO’s notice to the government on some outstanding dues…,” she said.

It may be mentioned here the issue related to the power purchase agreement signed with the National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC) in 2007 had dominated the floor of the Assembly.

While the 7-8 hours load shedding due to failure to pay fixed charges to NTPC was only lifted few days ago, the state government on Tuesday was again slapped with another notice by the NEEPCO for failing to clear over Rs 504.41 crore outstanding power dues.

Lyngdoh said the power department should explain what is going on as if another load shedding does happen then the people of Meghalaya are going to be so disappointed.

“This is a concern and I don’t know how they are going to handle it and I don’t know from where they are going to source another loan to repay the NEEPCO liabilities,” she said.

Asked if her party would seek the removal of the incumbent power minister, the Congress leader said, “We will wait and see how the situation unfolds itself…we have our eyes and our ears on watchful mode.”

Stating that the government had confidently claimed that there will be no more load shedding, she however said, “Then just the next day something else had happened and there is this huge gap between what the government says it’s doing and what is actually happening on the ground.”

Lyngdoh also said that for the power minister to say that he was not aware of a letter from the Ministry of Power expressing concern over the MePDCL’s failure to avail the loan for clearing such pending dues is not acceptable as such letters are already in the public domain.

Also stating that there is an attempt to blame game on the past governments, the MLA said this denial mode is something which the MDA government has to get out of.

“If you (MDA govt) have ways and means and methods to put in place and set rolling you have to do it as one after the other there is these big slaps that are coming. Now when you are constantly in the eye of a storm for your inability to handle a particular situation then obviously the discrediting of that individual will also follow suit. So I urge the government to verify all of these letters that have now reached the public domain – if they are false deny them, if they are correct, admit them and give us a plan action that is what the people want.”

To another query, Lyngdoh however ruled out any possibility for the Congress to move a No-confidence motion against the MDA government during the current budget session of the Assembly.

“We will definitely not look at an NC now but will continue to flag the issues,” she said adding “after session will find platforms for ourselves to again take up these issues through various committees that we are members of and various protests…We have two bye elections coming up – those will be our platforms we will try to communicate to the public say here are the issues and whether they will continue to support a government who may all other concerns within its power department.”

In the last session, the Congress had moved an NC against the state government over the alleged illegal mining and transportation of coal in the state. According to Lyngdoh, the NC was not an attempt to dislodge a government but with the hope to flag issues prevailing in the state.

By Our Reporter