stuin

KSU stand plays a part

Shillong, Dec. 15 : Meghalaya principal secretary, power, B.K. Dev Verma today said no decision was taken by the cabinet on the handover of two power projects — Leshka stage II and Umngot, to private companies, with the Khasi Students Union reiterating that it will oppose the move.

The students’ union had favoured the formation of a joint action committee to oppose any move to hand over the power projects to private companies after meeting the residents of the areas in Jaintia hills where the projects are located.

The KSU had also organised a public meeting at Amlarem on Saturday after getting inputs that the government was planning to take a decision soon regarding handing over these two projects to private companies.

The student group said its Amlarem unit, after the meeting, opposed any move on the part of the government to hand over the projects to private companies.

KSU president Samuel Jyrwa today said the state government should hand over these two power (above 100MW) projects to the state owned Meghalaya State Electricity Board. The state power board is at present executing the 126MW Leshka stage I hydel project.

In 2007, when the Congress-led government under the leadership of D.D. Lapang was in power, it had to keep in abeyance the power deal with the private companies after protests from the KSU and other pressure groups.

The erstwhile Congress-led government had also entrusted an official-level committee to look into the merits and demerits of the power deal with the private companies.

When the NCP-UDP led Meghalaya Progressive Alliance (MPA) came into power in 2008, it had cleared two power projects, Umduna and Umjaut that are below 100MW. It decided to scrap two other major projects, Leshka hydel project, stage II, Umngot among others, which are above 100MW, as these did not follow the international competitive bidding.

However, after the new Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance (MUA) government came into power in May this year, no decision was taken regarding the projects.

Deputy chief minister in-charge, power, Mukul Sangma, told reporters today that the erstwhile MPA government had earlier decided that the private companies which are interested to execute the projects above 100MW will have to enter into a joint venture with the state-owned power board.

“We are studying the various decisions taken by the erstwhile MPA government so that we can decide what is best for the state,” Sangma said.

According to Sangma, the next cabinet meeting will take a collective decision on the handover of the projects either to the state power board or to private companies