CORTALIM
Consumers of Cortalim, Quelossim and Sancoale are a upset lot over the difficulties they have been encountering for the payment of electricity and water bills.
After the Bank of India, Sancoale, reduced the number of hours for payment of electricity and water bills for one-hour a day (12 noon to 1 pm), the bank has now made available just 4 days from Tuesday to Friday from February 2016.
To make matters worse, the Cortalim branch of Goa State Co-operative Bank has stopped accepting the electricity and water bills from February as the bank wants to introduce a new software so as to also meet the electricity department requirements.
“We will introduce a new software and the electricity department has also sought some changes. That is the reason we have stopped accepting the bills and the directives had come from our head office,” the manager told The Goan.
However, Assistant Engineer of Electricity Department Vasco, Manu when contacted said the department has not suggested any changes and that the bank has unilaterally taken the decision.
Interestingly, the Cortalim-Quelossim sarpanch Hillario Figueiredo who was present along with local MLA Alina Saldanha for a site inspection on Thursday came up with another version claiming that since there was a fraud, the bank had discontinued accepting the bills.
Rejecting Figueiredo's reasoning, Saldanha said the fraud cannot be a cause and that she will write to the bank to restart accepting the bills.
“You cannot expect senior citizens in particular to travel to Vasco to pay the bills. I will write to the bank and also take up the matter with the power minister and other departments concerned to immediately re-dress the problem,” Saldanha told The Goan.
Meanwhile, the residents also criticised the bank for having stopped accepting the bills. “What do you mean by co-operative banks. They should help the people and not cause them problems,” said Anacleto Rodrigues from Cortalim.
Santan D'Souza from Sancoale also had complaints. “You cannot expect people to travel to Vasco to make bill payments. Also, all are not conversant with internet to make online payment. For bills of over Rs 1000 the bank wants cheque payment. So what happens to those who do not have a bank account,” Santan wondered.
Some residents claimed that the ploy is to stop accepting the bills and the reason of introducing new software is only an excuse.
There are over 10,000 consumers in Sancoale, Cortalim and Quelossim who could face a major problem if no measures are taken to solve the issue.
