Is this some kind of a drama that is being played out by Power Minister Nilesh Cabral over the recovery of outstanding power dues? A part of Panaji market plunged into darkness on Tuesday night forcing vendors to do business using candlelight. The reason: Electricity bills to the tune of Rs 5.80 crore generated in the name of Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation remained unpaid since 2003. This is an issue between two government departments and a confrontationist approach only shows a lack of coordination and understanding between these. While government preaches discipline, it has failed to practice it within its own setup.
The power dues in question are of the government departments and the way Cabral has bulldozed himself goes to show that the coordination between them is lacking. This issue could have been settled within the boundaries of the cabinet and a public display of such action was not at all needed. Power arrears is not a new issue, at least the dues of Panaji market premises. It dates back to 2003 and ever since the market became operational. Former chief minister Late Manohar Parrikar had passed it off lightly, indicating that it was a mere debit-credit transaction between two departments and nothing else. If that was the case, why was this transaction not settled? Why were arrears allowed to pile on? And what were the Electricity Department and successive power ministers doing all these 16-odd years? There may be internal problems on the allotment of shops inside the complex, but those are the issues that the CCP and the GSIDC should be dealing with and sorting out within themselves.
Cabral’s showmanship of snapping power to the Panaji market has only put the small vendors, who have religiously paid their sopo, and the general public at hardship. Vendors have been paying their taxes regularly to the CCP amounting to Rs 1.20 lakh per month. If there is some bill-sharing agreement between the GSIDC and the CCP on power bills, then it is up to both of them to settle it amicably without affecting businesses. On Wednesday evening, a generator was used to temporarily light up the market and directions were given to restore power at the intervention of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant after an agreement was reached to pay Rs 1.5 crore.
But that’s not the end of the story. Cabral has threatened to cut power supply to the Opa water treatment plant where arrears have shot up to over Rs 30 crore. Estimates reveal that there are arrears of over Rs 100-crore of other government departments too. These are internal matters of the government departments and should not have surfaced in the open in the first place. Imagine a water crisis on the lines of the recent one faced in the capital city. People cannot be made to suffer for failures of government departments.
And finally, how does one explain these huge unrecovered power arrears when compared against those of the defaulting aam aadmi? Doesn’t the Department swoop down on the defaulting common man and snap connection at short notice? There is a small window of default that is allowed, unlike the 16 years that the CCP enjoyed, besides the reconnection too is a laborious process and no minister is going to intervene.
When there are discords between departments, the elected representatives must ensure that the very people who elected them to power are not made to suffer.
