SHILLONG, NOV 14: The Public Accounts Committee of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly has slammed the poor performance of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) citing that it is still functioning in the ‘old MeSEB style’.
Addressing media after summoning the officials of the power department during a meeting held here on Wednesday, PAC chairman Charles Pyngrope said even though the (erstwhile) Meghalaya State Electricity Board (MeSEB) has been broken into three different entities – distribution, generation and transmission, there has been no tangible results on the ground.
“We are yet to reap the benefits of the bifurcation as there were major lapses, deficiencies in the administration and working of the three arms of the corporation (MeECL),” Pyngrope stated.
Elaborating more on the findings of the Committee, Congress Umroi MLA George Lyngdoh said the state of the affairs in the MeECL is not very good in terms of revenue collection, financial management and manpower requirement.
“Even though the name has been changed, the MeECL still functions in the old MeSEB style where the main holding company MeECL controls the functioning of all the three subsidiaries, which has been objected by the CAG,” he said.
Stating that the PAC has taken a very strong note on the matter, Lyngdoh said it was also brought to the notice of the Committee that some steps have been taken by the department but “they are limping towards improving the functioning of the MeECL.”
Referring to the revenue collection of the corporation, he said the way the MeECL is handling the collection of electricity bills, the late receipt of bills, it shows that they are still performing as government machinery rather than a corporation.
He said these deficiencies were highlighted before the officers and suggestions were given by the PAC to streamline all the problems in order to improve the revenue flow of the MeECL.
“This will help to streamline the payment of the interests, payment of the debts because as of now in order to repay the loans, the MeECL is taking more loans. The debt service ratio as of now is 90:10, which is Rs 90 debt against Rs 10 profit, so it is in a very serious condition,” Lyngdoh added.
On the other hand, Mawsynram legislator Himalaya Shangpliang informed that the Committee has also directed the department to either replace or repair damaged transformers across the state especially in the rural areas.
According to him, there are many transformers across that are out of order and till date the MeECL is yet to rectify these transformers nor replace or repair them.
He said while the MeECL is so prompt in disconnecting the power supply to the houses of defaulters’ particularly in rural areas but they are very slow in responding to repair the damaged transformers.
There are instances in Garo Hills, where MLAs pay for the repairing of the transformers from their MLA schemes because they could not wait for the MeECL to bring the new transformers, he added.
By Our Reporter
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