The Khasi Student Union (KSU) South West Khasi Hills District met the minister in charge of health department Ampareen Lyngdoh to follow up with regard to the up-gradation of various health centres in the district including the 100 bedded CHC in Mawkyrwat.

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Speaking to media persons, president of the KSU SWKHD Forwardman Nongrem claim that the health centres in South West Khasi Hills and Mawsynram C&RD Block of East Khasi Hills District still lack behind hence the union has asked the minister in charge to look into the matter for the benefits of the people of these two regions.

Nongrem informed that when it comes to the 100 bedded CHC in Mawkyrwat, though the CHC was open in December 2022 yet the health centre still lacks basic health services like radiology, surgeons, Intensive Care Unit, Operation Theater Department and ambulances for the patients.

He added that the 100 bedded CHC in Mawkyrwat still lacks manpower which includes in Grade IV, manpower in the Outpatient Department, Staff Nurses and Assistant, security, and other non-medical staff.

The KSU president also informed that the union has asked the minister in charge of health to set up the office of the District Medical and Health Officer (DMHO) in South West Khasi Hills in order to look into providing health services to the people.

“It has been more than ten years for the South West Khasi Hills District to be recognized as one of the districts in Meghalaya yet till date the district has not had DMHO headquarter to facilitate the doctors and nurses in the region” said Nongrem.

He added that the KSU has urged the minister in charge of health to set up a new Health Sub Centre in Mawhiang, Mawthong and Jyllep village and also to upgrade the Dangar PHC to CHC in order to provide quality health services to the people residing in those areas.

“The meeting with the minister in charge of health was successful as we were informed that the minister will look into all these demands and will get back to the union after two weeks after discussing with the department” he added.

On the other hand, the KSU also urged the minister in charge to provide basic requirements at Wahkaji and Mawsynram CHC like Pharmacist and Ambulances” he added.

The Managing Director of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeELC) Sanjay Goyal has assured that the power situation in the state, which is witnessing eight-nine hours of load-shedding, will improve in the days to come.

“Let me assure you that this situation is going to improve in the days to come,” Goyal told reporters today while responding to a query on the steps taken to lift the load shedding.

“We are expecting some more power from other sources but that might not come very soon. Maybe in the days to come and with some rainfall which we are expecting as per information, we will get production from Leshka and we will try to reduce the (hours of) load shedding,” he added.

He also appealed to the public to understand that the state is going through a tough time due to shortage of power and the corporation is making all-out efforts to address the issue.

Goyal informed that as of now there is a gap between the availability of power and the demand which is there in the state.

“The demand is roughly touching around 250 MW and the availability is roughly around 170 MW which is from our own generation as well as our entitlements from the central generating units – from the NEEPCO, NTPC and from Agartala based power plant,” he said.

“To some extent, we are trying to fulfil (the demand) from the open market corporation which we talk about like purchase of the power and some of it is since we are not able to go to that extent of the purchase of the power because of it is quite costly during the certain period of the day so we are going for the load shedding,” he added.

Goyal said load-shedding is being imposed around 8-9 hours even as he added that “we are trying to reduce in the days to come and we will see if we can procure some cheaper power from the open market.”

The Managing Director further said that shortage of water has greatly impacted the generating units of the Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric Project as it is off-production for the last 5-6 days adding that “accordingly the water level of Umiam is also decreasing very fast because we are excessively using this water to compensate the loss of power which is there not available through the Myntdu.”

Stating that the corporation is also purchasing power to meet the demand, Goyal said, “We are even going up to Rs 8 for purchase of power whereas the average cost of billing which the regulator is allowing us is roughly Rs 4.5. Therefore, the corporation is taking that hit of around Rs 3 per unit during the peak time.”

“We are trying to see that during the evening time we are not going for load shedding and that is the time the power available in the market is at the very high-cost rate but we are doing the operation just to ensure the supply of the power,” he added.

Goyal said, “It’s not about the failure I think that is too simplistic a statement. See we have to understand one thing, we have only one project in Meghalaya which is dependent on the pondage which is the Umiam. We have a huge reservoir which takes the water all through the year and it is during this lean period we use this water right from the month of November onwards till the month of April or May till the time we get rainfall during the monsoons.”

He said the three units of Myntdu Leshka are being operated during peak monsoon and are generating 126 MW of power.