MeECL employees' union mum on failure to recover huge outstanding dues over the years

SHILLONG:

The Coordination Committee of Registered MeECL (Employees) Associations and Unions (CCORMAU), on Wednesday, refused to comment on the silence of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited engineers over the years when industries and other government departments failed to pay the outstanding dues worth more than Rs 500 crore.

"We cannot comment anything on what our predecessors have done but, we are coming forward now," CCORMAU president PK Chullet said during a press conference held in Shillong on April 7.

When asked why they are against the One-Time Settlement Scheme which will waive off Delayed Payment Charges (DPC) for domestic and industrial consumers to recover outstanding dues, CCORMAU failed to provide a clear answer and justified that the scheme was benefiting only a few categories of consumers.

It may be mentioned that the MeECL had recovered Rs 19,02,47,452 of the Rs 554.72 crore of outstanding dues from customers through the OTS Scheme.

The Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Limited (MePDCL), on Tuesday, had announced that a rigorous disconnection drive would be carried out, with effect from April 16, against all the consumers, who are yet to avail the One-time Settlement Scheme (OSS) and still have outstanding dues. They have been given a chance to pay the electricity bills latest by April 15.

When enquired about the stand of the CCORMAU when the previous government signed the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in 2007, Chullet said, “The incident happened decades ago. Maybe whatever was done back then was done according to the Industrial Policy, we don’t know. We cannot comment anything on what our predecessors have done.”