NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Goa Forward has threatened to take out a morcha to power department and gherao the chief electrical engineer if their demands are not fulfilled.
Some of the major demands include issuing monthly bills, stopping exorbitant billing, providing immediate relief to small-time enterprises as the power charges are resulting in closure of such units, transparency in infrastructure cess collected from consumers etc.
It has also demanded a public apology for converting LED bulb distribution, done through public funds, to a ‘BJP activity’. Addressing the media at the doorsteps of the power department, Suraj Borkar and Durgadas Kamat alongwith others said that if their demands were ignored by the department and the issues not resolved within 15-20 days, then they would be compelled to gherao the department official. They submitted a memorandum to the chief electrical engineer Dipak Bhajekar, who assured them to look into the matter and try to resolve the issues.
They said the Forward party was compelled to submit the memorandum before the chief electrical engineer as the irregularities in billing cycles coupled with erroneous and exorbitant billing are affecting the common man who is striving hard to make ends meet.
Small business establishments such as rice and wheat flour mills in the state are forced to shut shop as the power bills have shot up four times since June, they stated.
Despite infrastructure cess and the fixed charges that the department collects from the power consumers, they said, the consumer is again forced to pay costs for erection of transformers, cables, meter boxes and all the things required for power connection. They also said that as per the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission report (JERC) for Goa the total infrastructure duty collected by the power department is around Rs 790 crore.
However, the amount utilised by the department is a mere Rs 200 crore. There is no clue of the utilisation of the cess collected by the power department in the name of infrastructure duty, they said. They pointed that whenever the municipalities and panchayats approach the department, there are always usual issues of absence of equipment and fixtures, adding, there seems to be no accountability in utilisation of infrastructure cess collected from the power consumers and citizens by the department.
