SHILLONG:
Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, on June 6, said that the government on an average is spending about Rs 600 crore of the state’s revenue annually to pay for different expenditures, including purchase of power.
Briefing media persons in the city, Sangma said, “We are purchasing close to Rs 3 crores on power everyday now considering the kind of power scenario we are facing today. Hence if the situation continues for the next 100 days, we will be spending additional Rs 300 crore just to buy power and maintain this level of load shedding.”
The Chief Minister said that though the power situation is very complicated, the government is doing its best to ensure that load shedding hours are not increased any further.
Sangma said that the government is looking for other alternatives in the long run, and not just depend on hydel projects, which as of now is the only source of power generation in the state
“What we wanted to share with everybody is that the government is doing everything in its capacity, and obviously rainfall will improve the situation. In the long run, the government has to go for other augmentation measures, and the solar mission is meant to be one of those,” Sangma said.
He said that in the next 2-3 years the state will see more power inputs from the Solar Sector and thermal power plants which will augment the state’s power demand.
“We are hopeful that we will be able to start thermal power plants in the state which will be a long term solution to address the issue of power crisis in the state,” he said.
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