Electricity department gives AEs and EEs quasi-judicial authority
PANAJI
In a move which is expected to help the Electricity Department hasten its efforts to recover dues from defaulter consumers, Assistant Engineers (Commercial) and Executive Engineers have been given the powers of 'collectors' to institute and conduct proceedings for recovery of the dues as if they were land revenue dues.
While AEs will conduct the process in cases involving Low Tension (LT) consumers, these powers in cases involving High Tension (HT) consumers will vest in Executive Engineers in their respective jurisdictions.
The legal requirements and the government approval to give the AEs and EEs the power to act as "collectors" in recovery of dues proceedings under the relevant law were completed about a month ago, a senior Electricity Department official said.
He said the department will be conducting training sessions for its EEs and AEs on how to conduct these quasi-judicial recovery proceedings soon.
Earlier, as per the law – Goa Public Moneys Recovery Act – these proceedings were conducted in the courts of the mamlatdars (executive magistrates) and Deputy Collectors (sub-divisional magistrates).
In the first case under this new legal arrangement, Mapusa Executive Engineer William Barreto, acting as the Revenue Recovery Officer of Electricity Division XVII, Mapusa, issued an order to attach 23,000 sq mts of Dhargalim land belonging to M/s Twenty First Century Iron & Steel Ltd for defaulting on electricity dues to the tune of Rs 2.74 crore.
Barreto is expected to soon go ahead with recovering the dues unless the defaulter company clears them before he begins the proceedings.
The Electricity Department had been struggling to recover past dues from its consumers. Power dues arrears have piled up to over Rs 1,000 crores, according to official information available in the public domain.
