SHILLONG, MAR 9: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has slammed the then Congress-led government for signing a “one-sided agreement” due to which the state has to annually pay over Rs 130 crore to the NTPC despite not purchasing power from them for past 3 years.
According to him, the government would have to pay Rs 3,300 crore approximately to the NTPC in the next 25 year.
“Because of this agreement today we have a situation where the NTPC (National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd) is literally armed twisting the government of Meghalaya and stopping us from buying power from other generation companies,” Conrad said.
He was replying to the motion moved by opposition legislator from Rangsakona, Zenith Sangma in the Assembly on Tuesday.
Zenith has expressed concern over the current load shedding imposed in the entire state despite the government’s claim of resolving the same within a short span of time.
The Chief Minister however reminded the member that the agreement was signed with the NTPC during the Congress government in 2007.
“And today the people of the state and this (present) government and MeECL have to pay the brunt due to this mess created from 2007,” he said.
“I don’t understand how a government could put Meghalaya and the people of the state in such a difficult position by signing a one-sided agreement based on which government of Meghalaya has to pay NTPC a fixed charge of Rs 11 crore every month (and Rs 130 crore every year), even though we don’t take a single unit of power from them for past 3 years,” Conrad added.
According to him, the agreement has also allowed the NTPC to stop other power companies from supplying power to the state.
Furthing revealing the wrong in the agreement, Conrad said, “In that agreement which was signed in 2007, the government agreed that from the last unit that would be installed from Bongaigaon thermal plant of the NTPC from that period, from that unit installed for the next 25 years the agreement will be valid, which means the installation of the last unit was done in 2019, which was two years back, you have to add 25 years to that which means in 2044, this agreement will be valid.”
He added, “The concern part of this agreement signed in 2007 by the then Congress government was the fact that if we continue not to take power from NTPC, which we are doing right now, we had to pay them Rs 130 crore annually for nothing and this would go on for the next 25 years. If Rs 130 crore is multiplied by 25, Rs 3,325 crore will have to be paid by the MeECL for not taking any power from the NTPC.”
Conrad further stated that based on the agreement, the NTPC had invoked certain provisions where they can simply stop the state from buying power from other companies.
Stating that he does not believe in blame games, the chief minister informed that discussion is going on with the NTPC for resolving this issue.
“We are trying to negotiate with them (NTPC) telling them that this issue is unreasonable and this particular agreement and the clauses being invoked are also unreasonable and that they should not go into this line,” he said.
Informing that the NTPC has agreed on condition that the letter of credit (LC) is put in place, the chief minister said once the LC is put back the clause to stop the state from buying power from other companies will be removed.
He further informed that the NTPC has also sought the MeECL’s commitment to clear its dues from the Atma Nirbhar Abhiyan loan. “Based on this, the MeECL and power department has given the break up of tentatively how much they will give to NTPC from the second installment of the first tranche as well as the second tranche,” he said.
According to him, the government had taken Rs 380 crore of the Rs 1,300 crore (approx.) loan and of this Rs 100 crore was paid directly by REC to NTPC, NEEPCO, PGCIL and other power companies.
“We are hoping…we will be able to fulfill all those conditions and access the website through which will be able to purchase power from other companies. Therefore, we are waiting for that,” he stated.
By Our Reporter
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