Shillong, June 8: Today the CMD MeECL Arunkumar Kembhavi had called an emergency meeting of the Coordination Committee of Registered MeECL Employees Associations and Unions (CCORMAU) in the Lum Jingshai guest house CMD said that all along MeECL management had objected to privatisation or distribution franchisee(DF).
However the situation was such that a difficult decision had to be made by the state government to handover 2 circles to distribution franchisee, in view of the deadline set by the Ministry of Power for recovering 370.99 crore NEEPCO dues directly from RBI.
CMD expressed his desire to take a delegation to meet the Hon’ble Power Minister and Hon’ble Chief Minister and urge the state government to reconsider the decision to handover central and eastern circles to distribution franchisee and instead give 100% budgetary guarantee for the 1345 loan. In return MeECL will adhere to strict targets, if any, to be set forth by the higher authorities.
Accordingly the delegation led by the CMD met the Hon’ble Power Minister at 4pm and impressed upon him that for 337 crore budgetary provision (25% of the 1345 crore loan) it is not appropriate to give 25% of the state injection for 25 years which in the long run will amount to thousands of crores.
The CMD urged the Power Minister that MeECL is on a tipping point and a fair chance should be given to MeECL for time-bound turnaround and revival. Power Minister gave a patient hearing and assured the delegation that he will continue to exhort the cabinet against any DF proposal as he has been doing all along.
Later the Power Minister and CMD called upon the Hon’ble Chief Minister. After threadbare discussion the Chief Minister expressed solidarity with the MeECL and assured that an ideal decision will be taken in the best interest of MeECL and the state of Meghalaya. The meeting was very positive and it is hoped that tomorrow’s cabinet decision will be one in the long term interest of MeECL.
