Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday hinted that due to the shortage of power in the state, the loadshedding is inevitable.
Stating that the power scenario in the state has witnessed a slight improvement because of different management the state Government has done in the last two years, Sangma said the large gap is still there in the power sector which will lead the state Government to put some power regulation.
“….there is obviously a large gap that is still there and hence we will see that there will be some power regulation but we are trying to minimise it, so that the inconvenience to the public is minimum,” Chief Minister Conrad Sangma told reporters after the conclusion of the Assembly budget session.
While asserting that the state Government is trying to minimise the inconvenience caused, the CM said, “The load shedding will have to be done because of the shortage in the power that we are having right now.”
“..We are trying to do it in such a manner so that certain areas are not affected in the certain time of the day keeping in mind the weather conditions, keeping in mind the different programmes that are happening or different religious situations that are there, all these things are kept in mind,” Sangma said.
Highlighting that Power cuts or load shedding is not new to Meghalaya, the Chief Minister claimed the situation has slightly improved. He said normally load shedding begins from the end February or March, but after various interventions, the state Government is in a better position to deal with the situation.
“…..this year compared to the past year we have seen slight improvement thats because of different management that we have done with our power in these last 2 years and hence that has let us manage the over scenario better,” CM added.
Meanwhile, Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited is once again set to resort to load-shedding for the next two to manage the situation arising out of the emergency shutdown of one unit of the ONGC Tripura Power Company.
Explaining the situation, Power Minister AT Mondal assured that this shutdown by OTPC will be for the entire state because they are going for inspection and in a day or two it will get back to normalcy.
“This is because of the shutdown by OTPC because they are going for some inspection so for that shutdown is required, so within a day or two the things will get back to normalcy,” Mondal said.
About the overall power situation in the state, he said the Power situation was okay but due to this shutdown we will have some problems.
Asked, the Minister said, “We are in a very critical situation and we tried to get power from the markets which we traded for sometimes.”
Stating that the Government was waiting for the examination to get over, Mondal said, “Whichever banking is possible we have done that one now power is not available in the grid also so that’s why we have to go for some shutdown.”
Meanwhile the Minister spoke to OTPC and assured the power situation will be back to normalcy soon.
“ I spoke to officers from OTPC directly, so once the inspection is done then very soon it will be operating then we will be in a better position,” he added.