VASCO
Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Monday said he had submitted a proposal to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to hand over the installation and maintenance of all street lights in the State to the electricity department.
Cabral was speaking to reporters after inaugurating a new electricity department office Sub Division III, Div XIV, in the Verna Panchayat building in the presence of Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa.
“Only about 60 per cent of the streetlights are being managed by the electricity department and hence people should not entirely blame the department for malfunctioning streetlights at some locations,” said Cabral.
“Besides the electricity department, some street lights are managed by the PWD, GSUDA, GIDC and other agencies. It becomes difficult to maintain different spares for different streetlights installed by different agencies.”
Cabral said he has proposed to the Chief Minister to hand over all street lights to the electricity department and only the electricity department should be allowed to install streetlights anywhere in Goa.
“The proposal is pending and I have been following it up. We can bill every consumer with a charge of 3 paise and commercial consumer with 5 paise. All streetlights can be then maintained by the electricity department,” said Cabral.
“This component will help us pay streetlight bills as well and if this proposal is realised, we can also install many more streetlights in other parts in panchayats and municipalities as well.”
“Within this month-end or beginning of February, we will take over maintenance of streetlights from the Airport along the highway,” said Cabral.
Cabral said the electricity department had been taking up the services through online mode to pay bills, new connections applications, etc.
“We have taken underground cabling in many parts of Nuvem constituency and we will also resolve the issue of streetlights in the area in a few days,” said Cabral.
Nuvem MLA Wilfred D’Sa thanked the previous landlord who had offered his premises to the electricity department for around 17 years.
“In the last three years, he requested us to shift the office and we were in search of a place to shift the office and managed to shift it to the Panchayat Ghar with the support of Power Minister Nilesh Cabral.”
“The Verna sarpanch also supported us to shift the office to these spacious premises. I appeal to the power minister to help us with a transformer for the panchayat building because the premises still has a temporary electrical connection in the absence of the transformer,” said D’Sa.
Power Minster Nilesh Cabral said he had advised the Nuvem MLA to have the office shifted to the panchayat premises so that the panchayat would receive the rent from the electricity department.
