TURA, May 1 –The residents of Mahendraganj town, a booming border town of West Garo Hills facing Bangladesh, have decided to take the extreme step in airing their grievances by putting a stop to the payment of their electricity bills by May 31 unless the bleak power scenario brightens soon.
The inhabitants of Mahendraganj and its neighbouring villages have been facing several problems since the last many years. Though the town has been electrified since many years ago the voltage is extremely low during the peak evening hours. From 5 pm to 10 pm voltage is so low that it is virtually impossible to do anything. The residents complain that the poor quality of power is hampering the student community of the town, those who go shopping after a day’s hard labour in the fields and also the business community.
Incidently, during the tenure of E K Mawlong as Chief Minister he had assured the people, on his maiden visit to the town, that the matter would be taken up and rectified but, shortly after, his government fell and so did the optimism of the people.
With little option left, the residents recently held a meeting in which it was decided that unless the power department (MeSEB) did the needful to bring better power supply to the town the consumers would be compelled to stop payment of their electricity bills by May 31.