Former Meghalaya home minister flags power woes in Amlarem; minister assures upgrade

Shillong, Sep 10 (PTI) Candlelight dinners may be a luxury for city dwellers, but in Meghalaya’s Amlarem located close to Bangladesh border, they have become a daily compulsion, UDP legislator Lahkmen Rymbui told the Assembly on Wednesday, highlighting the acute power shortage in his constituency.

Rymbui said despite housing two power projects — Lakroh and Leshka — residents of Amlarem, a subdivision in West Jaintia Hills district, continue to face frequent outages.

He urged the government to take urgent steps to reduce the crisis.

In his reply, Power Minister Abu Taher Mondal acknowledged the problem and assured that measures are underway to improve supply.

He explained that much of Amlarem subdivision and the Bakur-Dawki-Darrang belt face outages because of heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and strong winds, which frequently snap conductors and topple trees onto lines that run through plantations of betel nut, banana, bamboo and other vegetation.

Mondal said planned shutdowns are also carried out to facilitate system upgrades under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS) and LR projects.

He added that 16 linemen and jugalis are presently deployed in Amlarem sub-division to attend to breakdowns and restore supply at the earliest.

The minister informed that the department is working on sanctioning the Syndai sub-station soon to improve supply in Amlarem.

He also assured that power issues in Rajabala, a constituency in West Garo Hills district, would be resolved within the year with the operationalisation of a new sub-station. PTI JOP MNB