PANAJI
Whatever may be the reasons, consumers in Goa have been facing power outages for a long time, and nobody would deny that the State’s dependency on diesel generators and invertors has increased considerably.If the businesses have to depend upon gen-sets and invertors regularly, it is considered an overhead “ as apart from the one-time investment in this equipment, there is the maintenance cost. The gen-sets need diesel or petrol to run, which is a regular expense for the consumers. Whenever there is power outage, the consumers remain in dark as they do not know the reasons behind this outage.
Roland Martins, convenor at GOACAN, an NGO that has been vocal on various issues that the consumers have to deal with, highlights this point, and asks for an amicable dialogue between the electricity department and the end-users of power.
It is seen in Goa that whenever there is a power issue, and the question arises as to whom to supply the electricity, general public wins, domestic consumers get priority over industries. This is a common complaint from the industries, that they are sidelined and public enjoys the power, while both should be treated as equal. Taking this issue to a logical end, the GOACAN convenor specifies that the Electricity department is governed by the Electricity Act as well as Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC).
“Every year, JERC conducts meetings in the State, discusses the issues, and passes a resolution. According to me the first resolution should be passed, regarding the department “ whether it will remain a department, or be a corporation or a board. This is an important issue. The officials in the department have a certain freedom, but have to abide by specific rules and regulations too. This is because it is still a department working under the government. The JERC has been repeatedly telling the government to move towards forming a corporation or a board. If the government does not pass this resolution of transforming the electricity department into a corporation or a board, the issues are bound to crop up again and again,” claimed Martins.
One may agree or disagree, but the department is a politically influenced entity run by the ruling party and elected representatives in the Assembly. It is not an independent body, to take decisions free of political pressure. It has less freedom, less independence. Recalling that initially, he was the only person to attend JERC meetings, Martins added that he began to call the representatives from the industry to attend these meetings and place their views. There should be a fair discussion on power but this is not happening. “One cannot simply keep on blaming the department. There should be a continuous dialogue between these three parties “ the department, the industry and the common public,” asserted the GOACAN convenor.
Citing an example of Chodan, Martins said that he intervened to establish such a dialogue there and many senior citizens got the benefit out of it. “Today consumers have many doubts and we cannot blame them if they say they have to dig into their pockets to pay through their noses. Take a simple example of a smart meter. There has been so much discussion on the ground level on this, that how smart is this ‘smart meter’? Taxies too have meters, but are they working. Sometimes the consumers are slapped with whopping bills in lakhs of rupees, for no fault of theirs. If there are errors found in billings, the department takes meetings and the bills are rectified,” stated Martins.
According to GOACAN, the department should take the consumers into confidence and share their plans for the next 10 years, “Put up the plan for public view on the website. Revamp it. Update it regularly. Let it be a state-of-the-art facility for public convenience. Let the consumer visit it any time, and find out what the department is planning to do. A taluka-level discussion is a must.”
Recalling a recent discussion at a meeting Martins informed that people are not aware of simple, basic things about electricity and how the department is working. At a Gram Panchayat meeting, many elected members were not aware that if the wire breaks from the pole to the house, 30-meter wire should be freely available from the department. “They started wondering how much would it cost. The lineman tells any amount and shows willingness to bargain. This happens because the consumer is ignorant of this provision that 30-meter wire does not cost anything. If this simple information is not available to the consumers, then there is a huge gap between the working of the department and the end-users. This gap should be reduced and filled,” suggests Martins.
