AGARTALA, August 19 (TIWN): A Technical Co-ordination Committee (TCC) meeting to be held on August 20 at Guwahati followed by the Ministry level North East Regional Power Corporation (NERPC) meeting to be held on August 21 to take a stock of the situation of the power and its problems in all the northeastern states, said state Power Minister Manik Dey. The meeting would be chaired by Assam Chief Minister also in-charge of power, Tarun Gogoi.

State power minister Manik Dey would leave for Guwahati on Thursday to attend the 15th NER Power Committee Meeting whereas on Wednesday the technical staffs of power from the state had already left for Guwahati on Wednesday to attend the 15th TCC meeting on August 20.

Briefing the media on Wednesday at the civil secretariat Minister Manik Dey said that the main agenda of the meeting is to discuss the issue related to the long pending works on power and to take a stock of the situation of the frequent tripping of the power system in the northeastern states.

“We would mainly take up the discussion on transmission problem that the state is currently facing,” adding Dey said, “We would also strongly oppose the amendment of Central Power Act 2003 in the meeting.”

Flaying the central government's amendment to the Electricity Act, 2003, Minister Manik Dey claimed that changes in the legislation will affect states' rights and urged the Centre to avoid going ahead on the issue.  “If the amendment bill is being passed in the parliament, electricity will come to be managed by the Centre which is now being done concurrently by states and the Union government," he said adding that the move would "largely affect the rights of states."

"I urge that the proposed amendments must be avoided which encourage privatisation and instead constructive work should be carried on to multiply power generation," he told to reporters on Wednesday.

Dey also said that the state is currently having a transmission problem from Purba Kanchanbari to Suryamoninagar which at present has 400 KV DC line. Other such issues would also be raised in the meeting on August 2o and 21.