Amid the tall claims of the Centre to provide power supply to rural areas across the country, a village in Meghalaya, along the international border with Bangladesh, has expressed its willingness to get power connection from the neighbouring country.
The Meghalaya government has been providing electricity to Umkiang and its adjoining villages in East Jaintia Hills for the past several years. But the villagers complained of “very poor and unsatisfactory” service rendered to them by Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL).
“Since the very first day when electricity reached Umkiang and its nearby villages, the supply has been very irregular. We hardly receive five hours of uninterrupted power in a day. On most occasions, Kuliang, Umkiang, Pyrtakuna, Dona Skul, Dona Umbluh and Ratacherra villages get electricity from 6pm to midnight,” said Kynjaimon Amse, spokesperson for the Seng Samla Shnong Umkiang, the village’s youth body, in a statement.
Amse added that on several occasions, the villages remain in darkness for months.
“The monthly electricity bill always reaches on time though the supply is irregular and consumers are charged around Rs 650 or more,” he said.
Although several complaints were lodged, the issue remained unresolved.
Another village, Lumshnong, never faces power outages, Amse said.
“Lumshnong is a hub of cement factories that never witnesses any power outage. This makes us think that MeECL may have transferred the share of our electricity to the cement plants in the nearby areas,” he added.
Amse said the youth organisation has decided to request the state government to grant a no-objection certificate so that they can approach Bangladesh with a plea to provide electricity to the villages.
“The Meghalaya government cannot give us proper service. Hence, in the best interests of the people, it would be great if the government gives us a certificate so that we can take electricity from Bangladesh. A formal request will be made soon and we hope that the government will accept our request as early as possible,” he added.
According to the official statistics, the installed generation capacity, including captive power in Bangladesh as on October 28, 2018, is around 20,430MW.
