Hand-to-mouth, non-commercial and subsistence farmers (Krishi) are being made to suffer the off-handedness of the Goa Electricity Department and the stolid policy position of the Goa Agricultural Department.
When the Agricultural Meter electricity bills for May were received, we were shocked to find that the LTGA tariff was reclassified to LTCs i.e. active agriculture to commercial agriculture, without any notice or auditing and further, backdated to April 1, 2015 (April Fools Day) – all arrears to be collected on payment due date. The bill was accompanied by a terse notice from the Area Electricity Engineer stating this change and requiring us to produce a letter from the Agricultural Department that we were engaged in ‘active agricultural pursuits’ in order to revert to LTGA!
I approached the Zonal Agricultural Officer, South and told him that I have been in agricultural activity since 2005, had an LTGA meter installed in 2010 after due application and site visit, pay my monthly bills promptly, conduct NO commercial agricultural activity and provided him an exhaustive list of the agricultural content and activity of my 5000sqm botanical garden. I requested him to issue me ‘this’ letter. “No way”, was the pleasant response.
The Department issues NOCs for ‘new’ installations and nothing further to farmers who have met the requirements previously and already have operating installations in place – in my case 6 years. The respective area Electricity Engineers should inspect the installations in their respective areas and report the transgressors for punishment, instead of this blanket ‘all are presumed guilty’ approach, requesting letters and putting the onus on the Agricultural Officers to do their dirty work.
I approached the author of the notice I received from the Electricity Department at Power House, Margao. He heard me, including the unshakeable position of the Agricultural Officer. He informed me that he was only following written directives from his Head Office, contained in a circular – a copy of which he gave me – and had no authority to deviate from it.
The circular states that the Department realised in April 2015 that it had overlooked these reclassifications from way back, and for budgetary catch-up purposes is directing this blanket reclassification and implementation retroactively and immediately. The only mitigation and reversal is through these ‘letters’ from the Agricultural Department!
The stalemate and the power-trips exercised by the two Government Departments is that of not caring for the farmer/ consumer and is untenable.
My opinion is that the Agricultural Department’s policy is well founded and reasoned. The Electrical Engineers, who required due documentation and made site inspections before installing these meters in the first place, already have their proofs in place for meters already installed. If they suspect their Engineers of undue bias at that time, – (read corruption) – then the least they have to do is visit these sites or suspected site anew and react appropriately. This blanket punishment of sustenance farmers, in order to recoup on arrears of budget through tardiness of their own, is nothing less than thievery.
So, what now? Do I and others in my plight stew in this inter-departmental arrogance and power-play, or might the Electricity Department relent and put the farmer-consumer first and reverse this aberration?
