Guwahati, July 18 : The 29th North Eastern Regional Power Committee Meeting was held under the Chairmanship of A.T. Mondal, Power Minister Government of Meghalaya at Guwahati. The meeting was attended by Advisor Government of Arunachala Pradesh, Power Ministers of Mizoram and Tripura, Member GO NTCEA, Managing Director NETC, Member Secretary NERCP, delegates of North Eastern States, and Officials of PGCIL, NTPC, Grid India and NEEPCO.
During the meeting Power Ministers raised several issues which have benefits not only for the state but for the entire North Eastern Region.
Minister contested that Sikkim which as of now for the purpose of power related schemes is tagged under Eastern Region should be tagged with north-eastern region and included in North-Eastern Regional Power Committee. This will result in allocation of power projects coming up in Sikkim to North-Eastern States. Further, since Sikkim has a similar geography as most of the north- eastern state hence, most of the schemes under transmission and distribution implemented in Sikkim are similar to that of other states in the region.
Minister further raised the issue of the funding constraints for the transmission projects planned and approved by CEA for the state of Meghalaya by introducing the scheme similar to NERPSIP so that the financial burden of any transmission infrastructure upgradations in not passed on to end consumers of power. In principle this was accepted by CEA however, they asked DPR from other states also.
Minister strongly objected that the minimum requirement of manpower in SLDC notified by the Ministry of Power should not been linked to funding under PSDF. He also urged the member states to submit a resolution to MoP for reviewing the minimum requirement manpower to be posted under Emerging SLDCs’. The Member Secretary NERPC agreed to non-linkage of the PSDF funding with minimum manpower requirement. The letter to the MoP has been sent in this regards which is a big relief for the state.
Minister also raised a very important issue pertaining to the reserve requirements mandated by NLDC which if implemented would have a severe impact on the power scenario in Meghalaya as the capacity equivalent to the reserve requirement cannot be used for meeting the state demand. Based on his objection the Member Secretary accepted the demand to take up the matter with MoP and CERC for relaxation of the reserve requirements.
