SHILLONG, JUNE 29: The state government will soon constitute a search committee to recommend names for appointment as full time managing director (MD) of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) and its three subsidiaries.

“A notification will be notified by the power department for the constitution of a search committee, which will be headed by the chief secretary,” Deputy Chief Minister in-charge Power Prestone Tynsong told reporters on Tuesday.

He said the expression of interest (EoI) will then be floated and whoever is interested to work as full time MD of MeECL are free to apply.

“Thereafter, the search committee will screen (the applications) and will recommend to the government,” he added.

When asked, Tynsong said the department has decided to draw technocrats from the open market for appointment as MD of MeECL.

“May be from Central Electricity Authority (CEA), Ministry of Power as these are people who are purely technocrats and who possess the qualification of Indian Engineering Services (IES),” he said.

On Monday, the state Cabinet had approved the proposal to segregate the post of a chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) for improving the overall functioning and performance of the corporation and its three subsidiaries – Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Ltd (MePGCL), Meghalaya Power Distribution Corporation Ltd (MePDCL) and Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (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.

Lauding the decision of the cabinet, the deputy chief minister said, “We want to make sure that the MD will look after the corporation and the three subsidiaries full time so that he will be able to improve and transform the functioning of the MeECL.”

On the recent claim of the Coordination Committee of Registered MeECL (Employees) Associations and Unions (CCORMAU) that the state government has to clear approximately over Rs 3,000 crore as terminal benefits to the employees of MeECL, Tynsong however said, “It is not like that, I think they are talking about the lump sum liabilities of the MeECL. The terminal benefits of the employees were after we have corporatized from 2010, then there is a proper agreement that terminal benefits for retired employees.”

He admitted that the state government was unhappy as it could not clear the outstanding dues to the retired employees.

“However, now we are trying to pay them as per availability of funds in the MeECL savings,” Tynsong said adding therefore, the government’s decision to appoint a full time MD was part of revamping the MeECL.

He continued, “We hope that we can increase the revenue generation and reduce the losses which have been there for the past many years. We target our revenue generation should be 85 percent – 90 percent, and I am sure we will be able to clear the outstanding dues to the retired employees and salary of the employees who are still in service.”

With regards to the implementation of the revamp distribution sector scheme (RDSS), the deputy chief minister said the state government has already submitted the DPR and is still waiting for the sanction from the Government of India.

“I think very soon we will be able to get the sanction and once the sanction is in place, implementation will start,” he added.

The Centre had recently approved Rs 1,100 crore for implementation of RDSS in Meghalaya.