Clans want amendment of property succession Act

Different tribal Clans have expressed support to the demand for amendment of the Meghalaya Succession to Self-Acquired Property (Khasi and Jaintia Special Provision) Act, 1986.

This was informed by Maitshaphrang Convener Michael Syiem after a meeting held with the different Clans (or Kur) at Jaiaw Shyiap community hall here.

The meeting was jointly organized with three other organizations – Khasi Students’ Union, Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People and Hynniewtrep National Youth Front as part of their campaign to pressurize the state government to bring the necessary amendment to the Act.

The objective of the amendment was to ensure the ‘equitable’ or ‘fair and just’ distribution of property among siblings in a matrilineal society.

“The Clans who attended the meeting today have expressed support to our demand and they have informed that they will be organizing similar meetings within their clans to discuss the issue before taking a final decision on the matter,” Syiem told reporters.

The State Assembly passed the Meghalaya Succession to Self-Acquired Property (Khasi and Jaintia Special Provision) Act, 1986 and received the Governor’s accent in 1986. The Act provides a special provision enabling the Khasis and the Jaintias to dispose of self-acquired property by will to any of their children.

“But when the children inherit this self-acquired property of the parents, it becomes ancestral and this ancestral goes back to the youngest daughter. So we will feel that we need an amendment to this to include self-acquired property and ancestral property as well in this Act,” Syiem had earlier said.

“Another amendment we want is that the word ‘equitable’ should also be inserted in this Act so that the parents can equitably will away their property to any of their children not necessarily only to the woman or the younger daughter,” he had stated.

The social activist had also said, “Equitable does not mean equal. Equitable according to the dictionary means fair and just so it depends on the parents to give to whom and how much. We feel that this word ‘equitable’ should also be inserted in the 1986 Act.”

Shutdown of power projects usher in load shedding

Staff Reporter

Shillong, April 6: The shutdown of important power projects has left Meghalaya with no option but to resort to load-shedding, which is affecting the citizens of the state.

Minister-in-charge Power Abu Taher Mondal told reporters today that despite the scanty rainfall which is affecting the hydel power projects depending on the rainwater, the state is also having some added problems due to the shutdown of important power projects like Khandong and Kopili Hydro Electric Project. Due to this, the state is losing quite a huge quantum of power which is not coming to the grid.

He also informed the state also has its own problems with the power projects at home due to renovation and repair ‘we are not able to put the optimum power in the grid and due to that this (load-shedding) is happening’.

The power minister said the central share of power is around 72 million units and the state’s own generation is around 16 million units.

“At present, we are having a liability of around 88 million units and our requirement is 200 million units. So we are short by 112 million units and this is the hardest fact we are facing now,” he added.

Mondal said the power projects under shutdown include Kopili stage-I of 200 MW from where the state gets 35MW as share, Khandong power station of 50 MW (state share is 8.51MW) and Kopili stage-II of 25 MW (state share is 3.45 MW).

“As far as the Myntdu Leshka hydel power project is concerned, two units (of 42MW) are also shutdown now while Umiam also, we are also having two units of 60MW which are also like that,” he said adding that the reason is due to damage and requirement for annual maintenance.

The power minister admitted that the people are suffering and that the government is really concerned about the problem and said that the load shedding was done out of compulsion.

“Definitely, the government and the MeECL are working round the clock to see that if any relief can be given to the consumers,” he said while assuring that “the moment we improve our situation, as I told you it depends on how the power is available in the grid or we can go for swapping then we will relax the (load-shedding) period.”

Mondal said when the monsoon season is gone and the state is having surplus power, it used to give the same to some states or some utilities who wanted to take that power and during the lean period the state took back that power from them.

“So now the demand in the exchange is very high and the rate of power is also very high and these utilities which used to bank with us no longer want to bank at this juncture. So all these compounded the present position,” he added.

If there is any action plan to come up with a long-term solution to the power shortage in the state, Mondal said, “We have planned a lot of things. Of course, earlier also the state government has planned. You must be aware that we have gone for so many MoU signings with the independent power producers but somehow this could not take place. Those who want to start have some issues so we are seeing whether these issues can be sorted out or not. If that is done that way also we can look forward to the future.”

With regards to renewable energy, the power minister said that solar and wind energy is a very costly affairs and require a huge plot of land but there is also a mandate to have this in place.

“We are looking into this angle also,” he stated.