Meghalaya: Umiam reservoir water level increases by five feet

 Following incessant rain during the last couple of days, the water level of the Umiam Reservoir has increased by five feet (from 3165ft to 3170.34ft) as reported on Sunday afternoon. In the last couple of days after a heavy dose of rainfall, people in the state exhaled a breath of relief as a result of a rise in Umiam's water level.

With the increase in the water level in the Umiam reservoir, comes hopes of an end to the power crisis in the State.The State government was counting on rain to improve the power situation in Meghalaya, where load-shedding has been occurring for the past two months for 8–10 hours every day.

 However, to reach its full capacity, the Umiam dam needs an additional 50 feet of water because it can only contain 3220 feet of water at once.The State of Meghalaya is reeling under a power crisis for the past few weeks, and may have to suffer more in the coming days as the water level at Umiam dam used in producing hydel electricity is at its lowest and is almost at the point of shutting down, said Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma. 

“It (Umiam Dam) is almost at a point of shutting down as the state has not been receiving the required rainfall in the past few months, adding this has been one of the most difficult months in terms of rain for the state”, lamenting the Chief Minister. 

“We are doing our best to ensure that the load shedding doesn’t go beyond this…the government will have to spend an additional Rs 300 crore to buy power if the present situation continues in the next 100 days”, said Chief Minister Conrad as he explained the “difficult situation” faced by the state.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Manipur tribal body condemns inclusion of CM Biren Singh in peace committee

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), backed by the Kuki community in Manipur, on Sunday condemned the inclusion of Chief Minister N Biren Singh in the 51-member peace committee constituted by the Centre, calling Singh "the perpetrator of the current violence" in the state.

In a public statement, the ITLF said that the state machinery under the Chief Ministership of N Biren Singh was directly responsible for the engineering and escalation of the violence in Manipur. 

"His (N Biren Singh) constant rhetoric and hate speech against the Kuki-Zo community, the wholesale tagging of Kuki-Zo community as drug peddlers, terrorists, and illegal immigrants directly shadow the open declaration of genocide by the Meitei Leepun's chief Pramot Singh on National Media and the declaration of proxy war of "Chin-Kuki Narco-terrorism" by fringe Meitei groups," it said.

The Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum said that a peace committee should only be formed after conditions of normalcy and security for the Kuki-tribal villages had been secured."No such normalcy can be maintained as long as the state police and Meitei militant groups are given free rein to terrorize Kuki-Zo tribal villages in the foothills," it said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Saturday announced that the Centre had constituted a peace committee in violence-stricken Manipur, chaired by Governor Anusuiya Uikey. The members of the committee include the chief minister, state ministers, MPs, MLAs and leaders of different political parties. Various civil society groups, including those belonging to the Naga community have also been represented on the panel. 

While the Coordinating Committee on Manipur Integrity (COCOMI), an apex body of valley-based civil society organizations backed by the majority Meitei community, was included in the peace committee, the Kuki community-backed ITLF has not been included.