Newmai News Network
Shillong | October 19
Angered at the poor electricity situation in the district of South Garo Hills (SGH) in Meghalaya, various organisations including the GSU, ADE, FKJGP, AHAM, GSMC among others, on Tuesday began agitation in Baghmara town.
The agitation comes after the organisations submitted a memo of their demands to the state government over improvements required in the power in the district, which they alleged has not been worked on.
“SGH is one of the oldest districts in the state but it is lagging behind in many aspects, especially the power scenario. We began our agitation to show our seriousness of getting our demands for betterment of the sector fulfilled,” said the organisations.
They highlighted the need for the installation of a 132 KV grid power supply to the district which they termed as urgent.
“The power lines or the utility poles are not strong enough to withstand the extreme weather events and are located in the deep forests and in reserves of Siju and Aretika. It takes days if there is a mishap in the power lines as it becomes impossible to get there during monsoons. This has been very seriously affecting residents, especially students during the summer months,” they added.
The organisations contended that there was land readily available for construction of the power grid but there were no assurances made from the government.
The NGOs further added that most transformers have become old and rugged and needed urgent replacement. These old transformers, they said, broke down quite often and brought misery to people.
They have also been demanding the transfer of the SDO of MeECL, Baghmara, Patrick Marak over dereliction of duty as Marak apparently has not been committed to his work and making the entire district suffer.
“There are lots of complaints against him of ill-treatment of the villagers (Church members and some senior citizens) when they went to complain to him regarding power disturbances. He would allegedly scold and disrespect them. This is an uncalled for act and we strongly condemn it. We demand his immediate removal, failing which we would indefinitely strike in front of his office,” threatened the organisations.
The agitation began by picketing of offices of the MeECL (Revenue Collection department and Main office). However, for the convenience of residents, the supply of power and linemen were allowed to function.
