The minister was accompanied by sarpanchas and panchayat members of seven different panchayats from the constituency.
Naik first visited the electricity sub-centre at Pale constituency, where he heard grievances from residents of Velguem, Surla, Sonashi and surrounding areas.
Sanquelim MLA Dr Pramod Sawant, Pale Sarpanch Shamba Gawas, Velguem Sarpanch Mukesh Ghatwal, Surla Sarpanch Sanjay Surlakar and panch members were present.
The villagers complained about erratic power supply, the dilapidated condition of existing transformers resulting in low voltage, shortage of linesmen and dispute over power bills.
He later visited Sanquelim and attended to grievances of residents from the Sanquelim Municipal council area, Harvalem, Kudnem and surrounding villages.
SMC Councillors Upendra Karpe and Dayanand Boryekar were among those present at the meeting.
Naik later assured the residents that he would solve the problems in phases.
“Problems pertaining to staff shortage and other issues will be resolved shortly,” the minister said.
Commenting on the issue of electricity bills, Naik assured that a mechanism has been worked out with the help of GEL to issue bi-monthly bills to power consumers.
The minister later paid a visit to the Amona sub-station and acquainted himself with the working and difficulties faced by the staff there.
Electricity Department Chief Engineer Lakshimanan, Assistant Engineer Burye, Executive Engineer T Prabhu, Asst Engineer Shirodkar and others attended.
