MAPUSA
Maintaining that government’s priority was to provide uninterrupted and affordable power supply to the common man, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral said his department was working on a policy not to burden the common man.
He also said that the State government would soon come up with a roof-top solar policy which will benefit people of Goa. “Plenty of power is available in the country. But we need to buy power at whatever rates and then work out some mechanism so that common man does not suffer,” Cabral said. “A common household having four or five members should get a bill of Rs 600 or Rs 800 or to a maximum limit of Rs 1,500. For that kind of bill you require consumption of 300 to 350 power units. We will focus our policy keeping those common people in mind,” he added.
He, however, said that people coming under the premium segment who have more than two ACs and big fridges will have to pay for power.
When questioned what steps the government was planning to take to plug power theft and pilferage especially in the coastal belt, the power minister said that he will need more time to study and find out what else can be done to improve the department.
“When I took over power department a month back, I thought it would be easy to focus and come out with a white paper but somehow it is taking me time. I will require more time to prepare the white paper to say what else I can do over a period of time,” he said.
Cabral rejected the idea of setting up of power generation plant to make the State self-reliant in power due to paucity of land and problems by NGOs. “Goa is very small. We don’t have enough land. And if we start thermal or coal-based stations we will have pollution…,” he said.
He, however, said that government was looking toward tapping solar energy in a big way in future. “We are soon coming up with roof top solar policy where people of Goa will benefit. We are going to give them 50 percent installation subsidy. We will see that we will sign 25 year MoU…,” he said.
