Agartala, March 29: Tripura is heading for a major power crisis, with the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (Neepco) threatening to cut off electricity supply as the state government has not cleared its dues.
Till February 28, the state power department owed Neepco Rs 92 crore. In a statement, Neepco general manager P.K. Ghosh said despite repeated reminders, the Tripura government has failed to clear its dues. As a result, Neepco has not been able to pay suppliers of natural gas for its thermal plants.
“Besides, with such a huge amount in unpaid arrears, it is not possible on the part of Neepco to keep the power stations going,” the statement said. Reacting to Neepco’s statement, power minister Manik De said a high-level meeting had been held by the finance commissioner and other officials to decide on payment of bills to Neepco.
ADC controversy
The issue of further empowering the autonomous district council (ADC) by handing over more departments to it triggered a furore in the Assembly today.
All the parties in the Assembly were unanimous that the ADC should have more power but serious differences of opinion surfaced over the identification of the people living in the ADC areas. A private member’s resolution on the issue was moved by Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura MLA Animesh Debbarma, who identified the people under the ADC as “indigenous people of Twipra”, as described by the banned NLFT in its statements. He sought more power for the ADC.
To this, CPM tribal MLA Prashanta Debbarma reacted by bringing in an amendment identifying the people of ADC areas as “inhabitants of the Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) and in particular the tribal population of this state” in a calculated attempt to include non-tribal Bengali residents of the ADC. This led to noisy scenes in the House.
The proposal of the Treasury benches brought in by CPM legislator Prashanta Debbarma was passed by voice vote but the Opposition walked out of the House. Tribal welfare minister Jiten Chowdhury argued in favour of further empowering the ADC but said this could not be done earlier because of legal difficulties.