Shillong, Oct 4: The Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) has asked the state government to clear the air on whether the North East Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) will shift its office from Shillong to Guwahati.
A delegation of the KSU central body on Monday could not meet the Chairman & Managing Director of the NEEPCO as he was not available in the office.
The Union leaders however met the Chief General Manager of the Corporation JN Singh seeking clarification on the NEEPCO’s alleged move to shift its base to other states.
“The CGM told us that so far there has been no talks for shifting the office of the corporation to other states,” KSU assistant education secretary Shiningstar Kharbihkhiew told reporters after the meeting.
He said that the union has expressed its concern over recent reports about the alleged move.
“This is because if the corporation is allowed to shift its office from Shillong, no doubt the employment and livelihood of our local people will be affected to a great extent,” Kharbihkhiew said.
According to him, the majority of the people working in the corporation have been engaged as contractual and casual workers.
“Therefore, we urge the state government to come out clear on this matter as there is no clarity yet on whether the office will be shifted or not,” Kharbihkhiew said.
He further maintained that the KSU will conduct a follow up on this regard. “The Union will take a call on its future course of action in case there is such a move to shift the NEEPCO’s office to other states,” he added.
The KSU leader also questioned the non availability of the CMD in the Shillong office.
“We wanted to meet him (CMD) but we got information from some of the staff that he is never here. As per the CGM, the CMD sometimes operate from their temporary offices at Guwahati and Delhi,” he said.
Earlier, Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong had stated that the state government is not aware about any move by the NEEPCO to shift its office from Shillong to Guwahati.
“I am not aware because nobody has officially informed us. If it is (that there is a move to shift NEEPCO’s office to Guwahati), we will discuss with them and enquire what is the problem. You have a full-fledged regional office over here and how can you just shift the office when the setup is already there,” Tynsong had said.
However, sources have alleged that the NEEPCO is likely to shift its office from Shillong to Guwahati citing that since March last year, the Chairman and Managing Director, other functional Directors and Senior Executives are not functioning from the corporate office at Shillong.
“They have shifted their base and function from Guwahati. Many offices of NEEPCO were shifted to Guwahati such as operation and maintenance, corporate planning, corporate project monitoring and contract & procurement along with many employees without any administrative order from the Ministry of Power on the pretext of smooth functioning,” they said.
