The state that experiences heaviest rainfall awaits monsoon showers to get respite from power cuts.
Chief Minister Conrad Sangma on Tuesday said Monsoon is the only respite for the people of the state to end power cuts.
Talking to reporters in Shillong, Chief Minister Sangma also mentioned that once the state is able to purchase power at a slightly more reasonable rate the situation is likely to improve.
“In the current situation, the only respite we will get is once we see some kind of good rainfall that we get…….. in the times to come as we see the monsoons are arriving. It will be the main solution for us for the time being,” Chief Minister Sangma said.
Further, he said, “Once we are able to purchase power at a slightly more reasonable rate, the rates are very high because of the overall shortage in the supply at the National level by different grids and different power producers.”
He admitted that there are challenges but it is necessary to move forward.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Sangma also blames it on electoral procedure beside shortage of power at the National level.
“Loadshedding as I said this year specifically has been a complicated year for us, we had elections and because of the election procedures, election commission and many other factors we could not have that kind of scattered loadshedding that we normally have,” the CM said.
“We used to have 2-3 hours in January February March April may so it was staggered out therefore, we would not see the intensity on particular month, but this particular year we couldn’t do that and hence we are seeing the load of all last 3-4 months in this month of half of April and some part of May,” he added.
According to him, there is overall shortage in supply at the national level by different grids and different power producers.
Further, the chief minister also said that the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is facing huge financial concerns and hence needed the government’s support to a large extent.
“We are supporting (the MeECL) and that is the reason why we are able to maintain things to certain level but these challenges are huge and hence the aspects of reformation within the MeECL has also started and we will see that through this year many more reforms will take place,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, Sangma appealed to the citizens that this was a tough time and urged citizens to bear it.