Quepem
People’s anger in Quepem reached the boiling point Saturday night as the electricity department not only failed in restoring electricity even after 28 hrs since it had tripped on Friday evening around 10 pm, but also failed to give correct information to people on what was the exact cause of the power failure and when it be restored.
Parts of Tilamol, Ambaulim and Zambaulim went without without power from Friday night after a major failure of a transformer at the Xeldem Electricity grid. Although the electricity personnel were working to rectify the problem, they were unsuccessful in restoring power till Sunday 8 am.
Around 250 people gathered around midnight near the electricity department office at Quepem to know the status of the restoration of power but to their surprise they found only one linesman on duty in the office who had kept the receiver of the telephone off hook to avoid answering any phone calls from the consumers.
As he was unable to answer the people about the prevailing situation, the angry people vent berserk and demanded to talk to the AE Mahadevappa or the Junior Engineer but the linesman said neither did he have their contact numbers with him nor he knew their residential address.
Those gathered complained as a result of the power failure their pregnant women, newborns, sick senior citizens suffered due to unbearable heat.
Looking at the angry crowd, the linesman disappeared from the office. Some of the people were so angry that some of them wanted to put fire to the electricity department service office. However, ex-chairperson of Quepem Municipal Council Dayesh Naik and social worker Prasad Fal Dessai were instrumental in pacifying the people.
Although police personnel from Quepem Police station tried to explain to the people not to indulge in violence, they were uncontrollable and demanded the presence of AE Mahadevappa at the site as he was making false promises of restoring power since morning. Dayesh Naik called the SDM Rohit Kadam and explained the situation and he directed the PSI to bring AE Mahadevappa from wherever he was present to give correct information to the people.
Meanwhile Dy SP Uttam Y R Dessai took control of the situation and tried to contact the AE. Mamlatdar Pratap Gaonkar and SDM Rohit Kadam also reached the site.
A fire tender from Curchorem also reached the site and more police personnel, around 200 of them, from all surrounding police stations were rushed to the site to tackle any law and order situation.
The power failure badly affected several businesses in the town, especially medical stores, cold storages and ice-cream parlors.
At the newly inaugurated 24-bedded Quepem hospital there was not even a portable generator which could be used while attending to casualty patients. In spite of no basic facilities available, doctors and staff worked patiently by using torch lights while attending to patients.
The angry people had planned a Quepem bandh if electricity was not restored by Sunday morning. However, by 8 am the power was restored.
AE Uday Rivankar and JE Sunil who were instrumental in restoration of electricity said that power was taken from different power stations around Quepem and the problem could be fixed by late Sunday night or Monday morning.
Meanwhile, a new transformer arrived at the Xeldem power station at around 6 pm. Rivankar said that they will install the transformer as soon as various safety tests and performance parameters are conducted.
