Disparity in power supply exists in rural areas: George B Lyngdoh

* ‘Billing system burdening consumers’

A Correspondent

SHILLONG: Congress MLA from Umroi constituency, George B Lyngdoh on Thursday said the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) have different set of rules for the urban consumers in relation to that of the rural electricity users.

Taking part during the Question Hour, Lyngdoh pointed out how the department would cut off power supply to a village just because a percentage of the villagers have defaulted in paying their dues, but that was not the case for urban consumers.

“There is a disparity in the rural areas and it is clearly an injustice,” Lyngdoh said.

A total of 395 transformers were procured by the State’s Power Department, to improve rural electrification in Meghalaya in 2018, the Assembly was informed on Thursday.

The Umroi legislator pointed out that electricity bills in the rural areas do not reach on time and the bill comes after 2-3 three months.

“The entire problem is in the billing system and burdening the consumers,” Lyngdoh said.

However, Power Minister James K Sangma said there was no such disparity against the rural households even as he admitted that the consumers do not get billed on time.

“We agree that the bills don’t reach the rural areas in time due to connectivity problems,” Sangma said.

The Power Minister also said the department was constantly on the lookout for new methods to solve the issue and one such solution may be the pre-paid metering.

Also read: Meghalaya News