Meghalaya power minister James PK Sangma rushed to New Delhi on Wednesday to meet Union power minister RK Singh as the state had to resort to sudden power shutdown in the entire state due to certain issues regarding the Letter of Credit for the NTPC.

Power minister James Sangma said a meeting, chaired by Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma discussed all possible solutions to the sudden load-shedding that Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) had to impose, due to certain issues regarding the Letter of Credit for the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC).

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The power minister also attended meeting along with other ministers and power department officials.

The NTPC suddenly regulated the power supply to Meghalaya on Monday, which compelled the MeECL to impose load-shedding for six hours from Tuesday till the issue related to the Letter of Credit is solved.

“It was decided that I should meet the Union Power Minister in New Delhi to discuss the difficulties and challenges that the State is facing presently in the power sector, and to make sure that this regulation by the NTPC can be withdrawn at the earliest,” James Sangma said.

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“We understand the sensitivities of this sudden load shedding that comes at a time when students have to prepare for their exams, but, rest assured that the MDA government is committed to solve this problem soon enough, as it has done last time,” the power minister assured.

He said the problem that the state has to face this problem now was because of an order issued by the Ministry of Power in 2019 on opening and maintaining adequate letter of credit as the payment security mechanism’ under power purchase agreements by distribution licensees.

He said the Letter of Credit (LC) is amounting to around Rs 18 crore and this LC has to be made available to the NTPC.

“Though we have stopped drawing power since 2017 from the NTPC due to high tariffs, but despite that we still have to pay because they have charged us the fix charges that have accumulated over the years,” James Sangma said.

“Though we do not draw power from them, but because of an order from the ministry of power, they have the power to regulate our power supply,” he said.