PANAJI: Many vendors at the city market complex are agitated over the disconnection of power supply since Monday morning. The vendors on Tuesday urged the sopo collector to restore the power supply.
On Monday, the electricity department disconnected the line supplying power to light fixtures in the corridors and central area of the market complex. And, so the vendors had to conduct business under candlelight after the sunset, and today the supply to the light fixtures in the toilets was also cut off.
The vendors said that the sopo collector told them to go to the police station and lodge a formal complaint over the disconnection of power supply.
“Yesterday they disconnected power line to certain areas including corridors and central area but today there was darkness in the toilets also,” they added.
They informed that when there was a fire incident and wires and tube lights were damaged, “we contributed our might for the restoration of power supply as we cannot conduct business in dark.”
“You tell us, if we sit in dark, who will visit us and buy our goods. The authorities waited for so long to see the power bill getting inflated,” they said, adding, “What we were using was not CCP power supply. The government had illuminated the place.”
“If we had to be told to share the power supply cost nobody would have refused to pay but now who will share the huge burden of Rs 3 crore and above,” they said
“Many of us have applied for power meters but till date there is no favourable reply from the authorities and many of us (groups of 10 and above) are also willing to share the cost of installation of meters and power lines afresh if given the opportunity,” they added.
Nobody except CCP electrician has any right to temper with the power connections or provide connections, they said asking, “Why blame the vendors for power theft or illegal connections?”
Dharmendra Bhagat said that if the power supply to the light fixtures in the toilets is discontinued, women conducting business in the market will be totally inconvenienced.
Nearly half of the market vendors are women, he added.