MARGAO
The power department came under fire over the infrastructural deficiencies at the public hearing conducted by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) for the business plan for FY 2019-20 to 2021-22 on Tuesday with the domestic, commercial and industrial consumers making a fervent plea to the department to tone up the power supply and reduce the outages.
During the hearing, participants expressed shock that funds have not been forthcoming for power transmissions, further demanding to know how only a meagre Rs 52 crore was sanctioned for the purpose when the requirement was to the tune of Rs 1000 crore.
At one point, JERC Chairman M K Goel told Chief Electrical Engineer, N N Reddy, that the department should take a serious note of the points raised by members of the public over a host of infrastructural deficiencies, including basic equipments to test underground cable faults, absence of staff quarters, rampant complaints of non-functional LEDs, empty stores, shortage of conductors and insulators.
The JERC chairman clarified that the hearing is restricted only to the business plan mooted by the electricity department and the issue of tariff hike will be taken up at the next hearing.
Dr Ashish Kamat of United Goans Foundation called for the implementation of the Smart Grid Network to rid corrupt practices in the department, citing instances of officials demanding money for issuance of connection and increase in load.
He also claimed that substandard material is purchased by the department, which is the root cause of power outages faced by the people. He also demanded to know the rationale of issuing provisional NOC for construction projects at the cost of local residents.
The issue of LED lights and its maintenance figured prominently at the public hearing. Citizens not only highlighted the fact that LED lights remain switched on for 24 hours and there’s no agency around to look after its maintenance.
The Commission’s attention was drawn to the fact that public has not benefited from the dedicated telephone contact number to lodge grievances relating to LED lights malfunctioning, saying the officers only ask the people to direct their queries to the assistant engineers.
CEE Reddy submitted before the Commission that the department will soon rope in a new agency to look after the LED maintenance.
Lorna Fernandes took up the issue of the dilapidated state of affairs of the staff quarters of Cuncolim sub-station. She pointed out that many a substation does not even have a vehicle to attend to complaints, even as Reddy submitted that the divisions have been empowered to hire vehicles for emergencies.
Sandeep Prabhu, representing Verna Industrial Association, demanded to know the status of the completion of the new 110-KV line, saying the Verna industrial estate has suffered from 20-15 per cent power cuts and has been witnessing as many as 220 power outages.
Gerard D’Mello, representing Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that power supply needs to be improved, saying that power outages have hit production, resulting in losses.
“There ought to be a five-year plan and a peak demand forecast. Lot of housing projects are coming up and there ought to be projection on the power requirements.
