SHILLONG, June 27: The state government has decided to segregate the post of a chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) to ensure improvement in the overall functioning and performance of the corporation.

The decision to restructure the MeECL and its three subsidiaries – Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Ltd (MePGCL), Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (MePDCL) and Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (MePTCL) – was taken by the state Cabinet on Monday.

Cabinet has decided to restructure the board structure of the MeECL & its 3 subsidiaries. The post of Chairman & MD will be segregated with a full time MD of the MeECL from the IAS cadre/Lateral Entry/ Technocrat who will be selected by a transparent process@RajKSinghIndia pic.twitter.com/qzSHfYEg1Q

— Conrad Sangma (@SangmaConrad) June 27, 2022

Addressing media persons, Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma said, “We have decided that the post of CMD of the MeECL will be segregated. The government has decided that there will be a full time managing director (MD) of MeECL. The MD Can be somebody who is from the IAS cadre or a lateral entry (where) a technocrat will be selected through a transparent process. The person who will be the MD of the MeECL shall also be the MD of the MeGCL, MePDCL and MePTCL.”

“The chairman of the MeECL will be the power minister who will be the non-executive chairman of the board while the chairman of the other three subsidiaries will be the chief secretary or the additional chief secretary or the principal secretary in-charge of power,” he said.

Sangma said the decision has been taken in light of the fact that in the past 50 years, the MeECL has been managed by officials from the state government who had multiple responsibilities and hence it was not possible for them to give necessary time to run the corporation in a proper manner.

“Hence, this decision has been taken in the larger interest of the overall restructuring and improving the overall performance of the MeECL and its subsidiary companies,” he added.

When asked, the chief minister said another option for the government is to get a technocrat through a lateral entry system.

“This has never been discussed before so we decided that we need a technocrat to run the MeECL,” he said adding “Hence, a person who has experience in power sector and in running PSUs in the past would be preferable and we feel strongly that they would do justice to the entire working of the MeECL.”

Further, the Chief Minister said that the government’s expectation is for things to improve from this restructuring exercise of the MeECL but it cannot happen overnight.

“We feel that with a more focused approach and a full time approach and more technically sound approach the overall functioning of the MeECL will improve in the process and hopefully in the long run, medium run and to some extent short run, we will see things improve in the MeECL,” he asserted.