Congress opposes MDA move to lease out MeECL assets

The appeal was made following the alleged move of the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government to lease out the assets of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) to private entities.

“I would like to tell the Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma please stop indulging in corruption and please do have mercy on the people of the state and the generation next,” Congress spokesperson Zenith M Sangma told reporters here.

He alleged that the MeECL had engaged one company called NITCON, a government PSU – for monetization of the assets of the MeECL across the state including the land.

The Rangsakona MLA said that the move was also protested by one of the directors of MeECL.

“The independent director resigned from the post in the boards of directors. It is a very serious issue as it implies nobody has acknowledged her protest which culminates in the resignation from the boards of directors,” he said adding “Now what is going to happen? MeECL is subjected to taking loan after loan pushing it into a debt trap. These loans are availed under government guarantee.”

He also stated that the government is allegedly planning to lease out the assets particularly the land of MeECL in different locations in Shillong, Umiam, Sumer, Byrnihat, Tura etc to private operators to develop malls, hotels, casino games with the pretext to enhance tourism industry in the state of Meghalaya that too at the cost of the interest of the people of the state.

The Congress leader further alleged that the tourism portfolio will also be given to the incumbent power minister James K Sangma to accomplish the government’s mission to loot the state.

“Therefore with this intention, the tourism portfolio is going to be given to James K Sangma provided the power portfolio is taken away from him so that mission is accomplished. Their sole intention is to loot and benefit only a few at the cost of the interest of the people,” he said.

“Therefore, we say this policy is not acceptable to the people of the state and we condemn this act upto the maximum that this thing should be stopped and should not be repeated again,” he added.

Asked, Zenith admitted that it is the prerogative of the Chief Minister to take away or give any portfolio to any minister. “But then this news item has been carried in the media for the last couple of days and if it is true just to pacify the people who are having agonies out of this mess and exchange the portfolio vice versa and maybe that is the intention to get their mission accomplished,” he said.

He further questioned the purpose of the present government to engage the NITCON for evaluating the assets of MeECL across the state which according to him, they have already completed in Garo Hills in terms of monetizing the assets particularly the land.

“…from the style of functioning of this present government headed by Conrad K Sangma as Chief Minister we can understand the sign is enough that they want to run the government in corporate style,” he said adding “In the recent past we have seen any empty space they find, they want to construct malls they want to construct hotels, what does it means? So this is the way this present MDA government is being run by this present leadership.”

To another question, Zenith said that the government will try to justify that the particular lands are not being productive so they want to sell it off to the private operators or private entities.

“…that is the only justification that they are trying to give. With that pretext, they want to do something to fulfill the greed of a few,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Congress leader said that the alleged corruption and illegalities in different sectors be it the coal scam, power scam, rice scam, forest scam, taxation scam are possible because of the patronage from the people in authority.

He said out of this the most dangerous trend and precedent that has been created is in the power sector.

Under the power sector there are a number of irregularities if talked about Saubhagya, Ganol power project, smart metering, special tariff to Byrnihat Industrial Association (BIA), one time settlement scheme, outsourcing of sub stations, outsourcing of major distribution circles and others.

“The government does not have proper planning for the welfare of the people of the state.

Their intention is something else. Their modus operandi that they have scripted is nothing but to loot public money upto maximum. We have brought all these issues to the notice of the government and apart from us even different stakeholders, NGOs, members from civil society organizations, and even friends from different political parties raised this issue and demanded that there should be a proper inquiry into the alleged scams but the government is not serious rather than doing something good to the people their intention is something else,” he stated.

By Our Reporter