PANAJI
A dramatic turn of events unfolded on Thursday morning as an Assistant Engineer, Swapnil Walavalkar, who was manning a vital sub-station on which power supply to the entire North Goa depends, was detained by the police for allegedly failing to report for duties related to the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The detention followed a formal complaint lodged by the Deputy Collector, Suyesh Khandeparkar, at the Colvale police station, citing dereliction of duty.
The engineer, who was responsible for overseeing operations at the sub-station that supplies power to large parts of North Goa, was reportedly absent from his assigned SIR responsibilities, a lapse which Khandeparkar surprisingly deemed serious enough to warrant police intervention.
The move instantly provoked widespread outrage among officials within the Electricity Department, who argued that the officer was performing critical duties at the sub-station and had communicated his constraints in joining the SIR process.
“This is not just unjust -- it’s reckless,” said a senior Electricity Department official.
“This particular sub-station is a high-priority facility. Pulling out its top engineer abruptly compromises the functioning” the official said.
Opposition parties, meanwhile, condemned the act of detaining the engineer and accused the government of authoritarian overreach.
Leaders from the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) have demanded an immediate explanation from the administration and called for safeguards to prevent such punitive actions.
A delegation of Congress leaders led by GPCC president Amit Patkar met the North Goa Collector and demanded that officials responsible for essential services should not be deployed for SIR work.
"The officer was detained like a criminal for a procedural lapse. It’s unacceptable,” Patkar said, while speaking to the media outside the Collectorate.
AAP's State president, Amit Palekar, also slammed the administration for the insensitivity displayed in detaining the engineer even when his department had informed of its inability to relieve him since the sub-station is a highly sensitive one and ensures power supply to virtually the whole of North Goa.
Sources at the Colvale police station said, the engineer was released later, but the episode has triggered anger among technical staff of departments responsible for essential services like the Electricity Department and the PWD.
As tensions simmer, the senior official of the Electricity Department said it will raise the issue with the Chief Secretary.
