the goan I network
MAPUSA
For more than a fortnight, most street lights in and around Mapusa have stayed on well past nine o’clock in the morning. Streetlights in Angod and along the main market road, Mapusa-Guirim and Mapusa-Parra roads have been shining bright till late in the morning.
“It’s not only in the morning, the other day I saw streetlights were on at around 3 pm,” said Laura D’Sa, a resident of Angod-Mapusa.
“It just hurts to see so much of electricity being wasted in days of energy crisis and also for a developing country like India where we are barely able to afford basic necessity of power,” she added.
Even in the evenings, the street lights are switched on at around 5.30 pm when it is very bright.
It may be recalled that the central government has decided to replace all streetlights in the country with LED bulbs to conserve energy as part of its energy-efficiency plan. “The electricity department constantly says there is shortage of power. But after looking at the lights on even during day time, it appears there is enough power supply. The government replaces conventional lights with LED bulbs to save energy and the department officials waste power in this manner,” said Adv Mahesh Rane, a resident of Khorlim-Mapusa.
Many times complaints to the electricity department have fallen on deaf ears. “As a responsible citizen when I complained about street lights remaining on till late in the morning to a senior engineer he retorted, ‘tuka kiteak podlam’ (why are you bothered),” said Salvador Pinto, a resident of Morod.
Mapusa electricity department officials refused to own up and pointed fingers at BVG India Ltd that coordinates the entire LED street lighting operations in Goa.
“Street lighting is not in our control any more. BVG India Ltd has bagged the contract to control and maintain the operation of the LEDs in the State,” said Norman Athaide, Assistant Engineer, Mapusa. BVG India Ltd officials said they were aware about the Mapusa problem and were working on it.
“We have fixed a CCMS panel with a timer which controls the LED on/off timing. The panel is a sensitive device and sometimes trips due to a slight voltage problem. We will check the settings and rectify the problem,” said Rishikesh Malak, North Zone, Coordinator for BVG India Ltd.
