Meghalaya Cabinet to Back MeECL for Atmanirbhar Loan from REC

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: Atmanirbhar Loan from REC in Meghalaya: The Meghalaya Cabinet on Wednesday decided to give 100 per cent budgetary support for the Atmanirbhar Loan of Rs 1,345 crore taken from Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) to pay the outstanding dues of the various power generating companies that the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) owes.

Informing media persons after the cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma said that even though the cabinet decided to help with 100 per cent budgetary support for the Atmanirbhar Loan, but this support will come along with certain targets that need to be met in a time-bound manner.

"There also has to be some kind of a security in terms of mortgage of assets (of MeECL) to the government of Meghalaya to ensure that there is some kind of safety and security for the State government also," Sangma said.

The Chief Minister informed that the Finance and the Power departments have been asked to work out in detail the different targets that the Power department and MeECL specifically, will have to achieve.

He said that the REC and PFC will be informed about the Cabinet's decision for providing 100 budgetary support by the State government, which is what they wanted in the initial stage.

Sangma said that in the cabinet it was clarified that these funds are going to come out of the same pool of resources that the State government has.

"Any payment or any support that is given will be a budgetary provision which will come from the overall development budget of the State, therefore, impacting the overall development aspect also," the Chief Minister said.

According to Sangma, although there has been a lot of concern about the distribution franchisees, these are not something new.

Distribution franchisees have been there for a long time, and there are many working even as we speak. A large number of them are in Garo Hills, some are there in Khasi Hills and some are there in Jaintia Hills also. So across the State, the Distribution Franchisees have been there for quite some time and it's not a new concept," the Chief Minister added.

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