The Federation of Khasi Jaintia Garo People (FKJGP), an NGO which had from the very outset voiced its strong opposition to these deals, had not too long ago approached the newly elected Cabinet Ministers, asking them to immediately scrap what it called “these dubious” power deals. Their reasons for their opposing these deals were based on the fact that the Expression of Interest floated by the State Government in 2007 clearly mentioned that only hydro – electric projects worth below 100 MW will be allotted to private developers. In the case of the seven projects, five of them are above 100 MW capacity. The FKJGP drew attention to Chapter V (Generation) of the State Power Policy which clearly states that “large and mega projects above 100 MW capacity should be allotted through International Competitive Bidding (ICB) route.” Quoting Chapter V Para 17 of the Power Policy objectives, the Federation also said that competitive bidding was needed in projects worth over 100MW and that a Cabinet Committee should have been set up as per the policy. The Federation also claims that the State Power Policy was hastily amended to accommodate these deals and here, the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the MDA government and the developers one day after amendments were made to the State Power Policy has only intensified suspicions of foul play. The Federation stated that the hasty closing of the deals had “exposed the manipulative role of the previous cabinet to sell out the assets of the state to companies by bending the rules to suit their interests.” As per the Policy, the Empowered Committee which was headed by the former Power Minister Dr. Sangma was an authority to determine the norms for selection of developers, approval of terms and conditions to MOUs, letter of allotment and other documents to be executed between the State Government and the developers. There were no provisions in the MOUs to determine the tariff, and no conditions were set on the developers whereby they were bound to sell the power generated from these power projects to the state on a priority basis. As such, these developers were in no way bound from approaching other states to sell this generated powerat a higher price.

Mr. D.D Lapang in his capacity as Chief Minister in the MDA government had initially been opposed to these deals being signed without the consent of the Cabinet. In fact, when he met up with a delegation of the Khasi Students Union (KSU) he had called up the Additional Chief Secretary WMS Pariat and directed him not to allow the signing of the deals without his consent. The KSU alleges that Dr. Sangma had swayed the former Chief Minister in his favour and in due course of time, the former Chief Minister gave his nod of approval to these deals even without the consent of the MDA Cabinet.

In his own defence, Mr. Lapang had stated that the power deals were signed in a transparent manner while keeping the best interest of the people of the state in mind. He also stressed on the ramifications of annulling the power deals as the developers involved would have every right of approaching the courts and seeking legal intervention in this matter. When he was questioned as to why the MDA government had not adhered to the mandatory International Competitive Bidding for the power projects above 100 MW, Mr. Lapang came up with the very weak reply that none of his Cabinet Ministers had raised this issue in Cabinet meetings. This includes Dr. Donkupar Roy who was the Deputy Chief Minister in the MDA government and who is now the Chief Minister in the current MPA government.

Reacting to the allegations of the KSU that he had influenced the former Chief Minister and pulled the wool over the eyes of his MDA colleagues, the former Power Minister Dr. Mukul Sangma said that the MOUs were signed in a transparent manner after several Cabinet meetings. He also reminded the KSU that the Cabinet is run on the basis of collective responsibility and thus the NGOs pinpointing him to shoulder the blame for the “dubious” deals was highly illogical. He stated that the deals were signed on the basis of the State Power Policy and thus the question of bypassing the mandatory international competitive rule for power projects over 100 MW does not come into play as this rule is not mandatory for joint venture projects.

Keeping in mind the allegations of amendments being made to the State Power Policy to accommodate the power deals, one need only guess as to which sections of the State Power Policy were “touched up” on.

According to the State Congress President OL Nongtdu, “the State Government would have been unable to take up the power projects due to paucity of funds.” Thus, MOUs were signed with Jaypee Group, Dharampal ETA Star Infrastructure Ltd, Seven Sisters Energy Ltd, Athena Project Private Ltd, and SEW Energy Ltd under the Build – Own – Operate – Transfer (BOOT) system for 40 years.

After much hankering from all fronts, the present MPA Government had finally come to the decision to scrap only three of these deals and reevaluate the terms and conditions for the remaining deals.

The MPA Parliamentary Party had resolved to scrap all these deals but the State Cabinet thought that it was wiser not to nullify all of them. Considering the possible ramifications, the State Government would be overwhelmed by legal suits if all these deals were scrapped at the same time. The Government spokesperson and Power Minister Conrad Sangma stated that three of the hydel power projects above 100 MW will be scrapped because they did not adhere to the State Power Policy norms and the International Committee Bidding. Also, the State Cabinet has decided to set up new conditions to the companies whose deals have weathered the storm, conditions that these companies have to comply with failing which they will lose all claims to any prior agreements.

It may be noted here that Meghalaya had always been a state with surplus power to the extent that it could afford to sell its surplus power to other states. However, with the spurt of industrialisation in recent years, Meghalaya has been transformed into a state which is on the verge of a power crisis. True, these deals would have gone a long way in alleviating the power woes of the state if the means in which they were brought about were not besieged with intrigue and controversy. Now, the State Cabinet has to sit and wait with bated breath for the retaliation of the spurned developers and all one can do is hope for the best resolution of this fiasco.

D. Nampui