Rs 25 crores needed monthly for 16 hrs of power a day: CM
Source: Hueiyen News Service

Imphal, March 21 2012: Along with passing of the Demands for Supplementary Grants of Rs 18,225,344,000 by the House, Chief Minister Okram Ibobi today informed the state Assembly that Manipur needs Rs 25 crores every month for 16 hours of daily electricity supply and out of this the government has been paying Rs 10 crores every month.

The Chief Minister gave this information during the course of discussing on the Demands for Supplementary Grants in the Assembly today.

The Demands for Supplementary Grants for the fiscal year 2011-2012 was introduced in the House by the Chief Minister, who is also in charge of Finance, yesterday.

Participating in the discussion of the Demands, the Chief Minister said that Manipur is paying Rs 10 crores every month to NEEPCO for purchasing power.

The state would not get any power supply if the government fails to pay the amount at any point of time.

Even though, the state is paying Rs 120 crores every year in purchasing power, tax collection is very low with only about Rs 2 crores.

Presently, the government is trying its best to collect outstanding dues from the defaulting consumers, the Chief Minister informed the House, adding that some employees even faced threats when they went to collect the taxes.

In order to get rid of the problem, the government is planning to chalk out a solution by discussing with various consultants in the field.

The government has also begun to study other states' power management system to see if they can be applied in Manipur as well, the Chief Minister said.

He went on to inform that pre-paid billing system has been introduced and implemented in Paona and Thangal Keithel on trial basis to see it can be successfully expanded to all the power consumers in the state.

In some other states, private service provider companies purchase power from the government and supply it to the consumers, thus saving the government from the headache of tax collection.

Touching upon health sector in the state, the Chief Minister admitted that the state still lacks specialist doctors.

That is why the government has encouraged the newly appointed MBBS doctors to study PG.

Earlier a doctor can study PG only after completing four years of service in the profession.

However, the norms have been relaxed to meet the requirements and the government will also pay their salaries during the PG course.

After the completion of the course, they are required to render their service as government employee for at least 10 years.

If any doctors leave his/her post before completion of 10 years' of service, then the said doctors have to pay back the salaries given during the PG course along with interest to the government, the Chief Minister explained.

During the discussion, NCP MLA L Ibomcha drew the attention of the Chief Minister into the working of Works Department stating that the working of the department is highly unsatisfactory.

The MLA alleged that many of the works carried out under the department lack quality control while many works are completed without before acquiring the required official work order, which made them non-standard.

He also demanded utilising the remaining Low Floor Buses which are lying in vain.

Later, the House unanimously passed the Demands for Supplementary Grants of Rs 18,225,344,000 .

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