Shillong, June 11: The Congress has expressed reservation against mortgaging the land and assets of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) for obtaining the government guarantee to repay the Atma Nirbhar loan of Rs 1,345.72 crore.
Rangsakona legislator Zenith Sangma, while thanking the leaders of the regional parties for exerting pressure on the NPP-led state government to scrap the proposal to engage franchisee for two major distribution circles in Meghalaya, said that mortgaging MeECL land and assets to the government to obtain 100 % government guarantee against Rs 1345.72 crore Atma Nirbhar loan needs to be examined thoroughly.
“From the day one itself, I have always been opposed to the idea of taking Atma Nirbhar loan, as this loan will make MeECL fall into a debt trap,” Sangma added.
NITCON engaged for monetisation
The MLA said the engagement of M/s NITCON as PMC for monetisation of land and assets of MeECL should also be reviewed, otherwise the future of all the assets of the MeECL is at stake.
He informed in connection with these issues, an independent director resigned as Member of the Board of Directors of MeECL and this has to be taken seriously.
Sangma said the state government had constituted High Powered Committee (HPC) in August, 2020, with an intention to monitor the performance of the MePDCL and which was supposed to meet once in every month.
“But numerous major decisions were made under MePDCL without the approval and the knowledge of the High Powered Committee. The people in the present government prepare the rules and break the same very easily,” he alleged.
He continued, “This is the true colour of this present NPP-led government headed by Conrad Sangma.”
Independent probe delayed
He further questioned the delay to set up the independent inquiry announced by the state government.
“It’s more than one month since the Chief Minister announced to setting up an independent inquiry. It reflects how serious he is. From his actions we can understand it was just eyewash – whatever he says is just lip service, superficial, taking the people for granted,” he said.
“I reiterate again that there should be a CBI investigation into all the alleged corruption in the implementation of Saubhagya, Ganol power project, ERP, smart metering projects, special tariff to BIA, power purchases and others”, he said.
“If we allow this present NPP led-MDA government headed by Conrad Sangma to continue for even a single day, it means huge loss to the state exchequer and detrimental to the people of the state because their priority is not to protect the interest of the people of the state,” he added.
