the goan I network
PANAJI
For the first time in Goa, the government has given the charge of Chief Electrical Engineer to a lady. In an order dated November 1, the Personnel Department promoted superintending engineer Reshma Mathew to the position of Chief Electrical Engineer.
“Government is pleased to give the charge of Chief Electrical Engineer to Reshma Mathew, Superintending Engineer in the Electricity Department with immediate effect, until further orders,” reads the order, signed by Shashank Thakur, personnel under-secretary.
Though it was her first day in her new role, it was business as usual for Mathew, as she dealt with file after file and a ton of people, in a flower-filled office in the Electricity Department. She did, however, spare a few moments to reply to ‘The Goan’s’ obvious first query : “How does it feel to be the first lady to occupy
this chair?”
“I’m very excited,” she responded. “I never thought I would someday be the Chief Electrical Engineer. I thought I’d come up to the Superintending Engineer level, but never thought I would rise. Maybe it’s karma,” she laughed.
When asked about her plans as CEE, Mathew spoke about immediately providing uninterrupted power supply to each and every consumer in the State. Explaining that with increasing load, the electricity department would have to work towards catering to that load, she spoke about upgrading infrastructure.
“I want to improve the infrastructure as the infrastructure is pretty old,” she said. “There are a lot of proposals in the pipeline to improve the infrastructure,” she added, even as she stressed that villages would be given equal importance to urban areas as far as 24x7 electricity was concerned.
Mathew replaces CEE Neelakanta Reddy who occupied the position from June 2017 to October 2018 amidst much controversy, starting with his appointment. Reddy, who was due to retire in July last year was given three extensions in service by the government.
Mathew’s appointment also comes around a month after Nilesh Cabral took over as Power Minister, who incidentally also promised uninterrupted power supply to the State.
