MARGAO
Asserting the BJP government has failed to provide uninterrupted power supply to the consumers despite spending Rs 12,000 crore from 2019 to 2022 for Improvisation of Power Transmission & Distribution System, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao has said the government has no right to burden the consumers for its failure to control and minimise the power losses and recover huge outstanding from the defaulters.
Reacting to the petition filed by the Electricity Department before the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) proposing almost 7-14 per cent hike in power tariff, Yuri has criticised the government for increasing the power tariffs for the third consecutive year.
“The information provided to me in the replies to my Legislative Assembly Questions reveals that there are 3480 defaulters whose arrears are above Rs 1 lakh. There are 2669 defaulters from government offices, almost 1,000 defaulters from industrial sector and 13,081 defaulters from commercial establishments,” pointed Yuri.
He added: “The information further reveals that Garrison Engineer, Military Dental Centre has defaulted Rs 53.03 lakh from 2016, Executive Engineer Division VIII MRT has whopping outstanding of Rs 2.55 crore while PWD, Corporation of the City of Panaji, Sports Department and various other government offices have pending dues amounting to multiple crores. Incidentally Electricity Department itself owes Rs 15.49 lakh towards power consumption charges to the government.”
Demanding that the government should set its priority on improvisation of the power network in Goa, he said Power Minister Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar should investigate the huge expenditure of almost Rs 12,000 crore spent in last four years.
