Shillong, August 10: The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) of South West Khasi Hills District today met Power Minister Mr. A T Mondal and submit memorandum urging the Government of Meghalaya for setting up power project in the District and creation of New Block in the District.
In the Memorandum the Hynniewtrep Youths’ Council –South West Khasi Hills District, urged the Government to set up Rangmaw Hydel Power Project, the Government in the year 2010 has signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with Sew Energy Ltd for implementation of the 65MW Rangmaw Hydro Electric project, however in the year 2020 this MoA was cancelled and since then no steps was taken to revive the said project.
The HYC are of the opinion that RangmawHydel Project is one of the important Hydel power project in South West Khasi Hills District and if this project become a reality it will be a great blessing for the people of the District and the State as a whole, from the organisation urged the government to kindly take steps for re-initiating the project at the earliest for the benefit of the State as a whole.
The Government of Meghalaya has singed the MoA with the Jaypee Meghalaya Power Ltd, New Delhi for setting up of the Kynshi stage-II HE project (325 MW) . However, this project was cancelled by the State Government after the Company expressed its inability to continue with the project and also as per the media report it was cancelled mainly due to the presence of uranium deposits in the area.
South West Khasi Hills District is rich on Coal production. The Coal from the District is mainly exported to Bangladesh and there are very less option to sell the coal produced to any other area. We are of the opinion that if a thermal Power Plant is set up in the District.
It will not only be a blessing for the District but it will benefit the entire State in term of power generation, it will also help the people involving in coal business as well as create employment opportunity to the people of the District. Hence, we would like to request you to kindly take steps for setting up one Thermal Power plant in South West Khasi Hills District.
In the meeting they have also asked the Minister who is also in charge Community and rural development the HYC has urged the Government for setting up of one more C&RD Block in the South west Khasi Hills District as of now has two C&RD Block that is one in Ranikor and the other at Mawkyrwat, and to set up one at Wahkaji or Umdohlun are.
The Central Executive Council of the HYC submitted written complaints to the minister in charge Rural Development stating that the organisation has received several complaints from various VEC on the materials components while implementing the MGNREGS take a lot of times where some VEC has not getting the funds more than two years.
The HYC express their opinion that MGNREGS is one of the successful scheme in rural area and census town area as it involve a bottom up planning mechanism, it does not allow interference by politicians, it has a system of accountability and it is fair when it comes to employment opportunity.
HYC feel that most of the MLA Schemeare not successful in creating durable community assets and development in their respective Constituencies. In order to bring a meaningful development, especially in the Rural area we suggest that the Government should come up with a Policy or legislation
The MLA Scheme not less than 50% of the fund should be implemented by way of convergence with MGNREGS. This will ensure of not just 100 days guaranteed work to job card holders but it will increase upto 110 days or more guaranteed workdays and also bring more meaningful development to the villages and town.
The Meghalaya Government in the year 2018 has approved a proposal of the C&RD Department for the Meghalaya Community Rural Development Services and Meghalaya Community Rural Engineering Services.
With this decision, the C&RD department will have their own service and staff cadres right from the level of gram sevak, junior engineers, Assistant Engineers and BDOs. As on date, officers working at any level in the department be it junior engineers, Assistant Engineers and BDOs were taken by the Department on deputation from other departments.
With these service rules the Department would have Engineers till the level of Superintending Engineer. The Rules will also create more employment opportunities for the youths of the State and more over it will enable the department to implement the scheme quicker which in turn will benefit the citizen of the state.
However, till date we have not seen that the Government has taken serious steps in framing and enacting the Rules. Hence we urged upon you to take immediate steps to legislate the above mentioned Rules and if the Government has already legislated, it is necessary that the Government should implement the same at the earliest.
The HYC of Shella area, take up with the minister on the Transformer of MePDCL at Pyrkan Locality of Shella Village, under Sohra Civil Sub-Division, East Khasi Hills District, broke down for more than a month now and no efforts are being made to replace the same till date.
As a result of which about more than 100 number of households are left without electricity thereby creating a lot of inconveniences to the residents of the Village particularly the school students, the old and aged persons. Being a Village located just about 2 KMs from the Indo-Bangla Border,it is also a strategically important place for any attempt of movement of illegal trespassers into Indian territory.
Hence, electricity connection to the Village is strategically important keeping in view of its distant from the International Border and to thwart any attempt of cross border crimes. Therefore, it is humbly requested that you may kindly issue necessary direction to the officials of MePDCL to replace the Transformer at Pyrkan, Shella Village at the earliest.
