CUNCOLIM: Agitated residents of Avedem marched into the Electricity Department office at Quepem last Monday and gheraoed the assistant engineer in protest against the total blackout on Sunday for 8 hours in the entire panchayat jurisdiction.
A Screen resident also questioned and grilled the concerned officer over the frequent power failure. Residents of Academy claimed that for the last many months they are facing the power failure problems.
In spite of so many representations by people affected the issue of power failure is not solved, claimed a resident.
The villagers, led by sarpanch Aleluia Alfonso and panchas of Avedem-Cotombi-Chaifi panchayat, shouted at the officials to vent their frustration over the long black out on Sunday.
The power outages have not been new here. Last month also we witnessed continuous power problems. Frustrated at the attitude of the officials the Avedem citizens finally lost their patience after the Sunday black out and marched to the Electricity Department, a villager said.
The areas of Gonvoll, Budimoll, Gaunthan, Cotombi, Baga Cotombi, Avedem and half of the Chaifi area were plunged into darkness.
Assistant Engineer Mahadevappa was reportedly unable to pacify the agitated crowd in his office. They questioned him about the trimming of trees before monsoons to clear the hurdles to the power lines.
The official cited shortage of staff to attend the complaints. He said that their jurisdiction is large and there are very few workers available to carry out the maintenance work. The officer claimed that the insulators are getting punctured due to the lightning in the rainy season. When lightning strikes, he says, it cracks the insulators allowing the water to come inside.
The villagers demanded that two or three linesmen be deployed in the panchayat building while the sarpanch assured a one-room facility with telephone to attend public calls.
The department had earlier deployed three linesmen at Paroda panchayat but no phone was available. The sarpanch demanded that a register book be maintained for villagers’ complaints when linesmen are on duty.
Power failure is not the story of Screen panchayat; all over Quepem people are facing similar problems.
Quepem Electricity Department has a vast area comprising seven panchayats including Avedem, Xeldem, Paroda, Molcornem, Rivona, Ambaulim and Cavrem but only four junior engineers are posted though the capacity is seven. Quepemkars are demanding change in the age old electric lines and also demanding that old Transformers be replaced. Few days back the Quepem town was in darkness for three days and an agitated mob had reportedly tried to put fire to the transformers.
