MARGAO
Sarpanchas of the villages along the Salcete coastal belt on Wednesday called on senior power department officials to complain about frequent power outages that disrupt the supply and damage electrical appliances.
A three-member delegation comprising Cavelossim Sarpanch Dixon Vaz, Varca Sarpanch Flavia Barretto and Orlim Sarpanch Simon Pereira called on Superintending Engineer Rajeev Samant to explain how the residents in these villages are facing hardships due to the outages.
Given that the coastal villages are closely connected to tourism activities, they pointed out that frequent outages have left the stakeholders "at sea".
Vaz mentioned that for the last two months there have been frequent power cuts at least 6-8 times a day. “Sometimes the current goes off for more than an hour. As a result, people face hardships,” he pointed out.
Barretto said that due to frequent power cuts, many residents have lost their electrical equipment, adding, “This is getting worse day by day. Even the linemen come and attend to the faults, but they have still not been resolved.”
Pereira said that villagers are still facing the issue of outages even after new conductors and poles were put in place, coupled with the cutting of many trees.
The Cavelossim sarpanch slammed Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas, accusing him of not taking an interest in resolving the electricity problems faced by the villagers. “Just because the MLA has not taken up the issue with the Power officials, we sarpanchas have to come together to solve the electricity issues,” he said.
After giving the delegation a patient hearing, Superintending Engineer Rajeev Samant assured to find out the fault within the next few days and work out a solution. “The issues raised by the sarpanchas are indeed serious in nature since there has been underground cabling in these villages and the conductors and poles were replaced recently,” he added.
