Team Herald
NERUL: Nerul villagers have been experiencing frequent power failures every day making their lives miserable. Despite several complaints to the departments concerned, the situation is getting worse.
Locals allege that the constant load shedding and power shortage is caused due to the extra connections being given indiscriminately without a proper demand and supply study.
Lamenting the “pathetic” electricity situation in the village, P Saldanha said, “The power goes off so many times in a day that no one keeps count anymore. One can condone power cuts three or four times, but for your power supply to go off anywhere from 20 to 30 times a day? This is not an exaggeration but reality of the power situation in Nerul. The outages last from a nanosecond to six hours.”
“Calling the helpline 1912 is useless and just a waste of time as they can only take your complaint but do nothing about it except to say that they will report it to the department concerned. To their credit, this department is doing a sterling job considering the huge number of angry calls they must be receiving throughout the day. If this is the state of affairs now, then I shudder to imagine what will be the ground reality when all these so-called talks of ‘vertical development’ actually materialise. Is the government planning or preparing for such eventualities? Or is it ‘let the next government handle it’ attitude?” Saldanha questioned.
A member of Revolutionary Goans, Rohan Kalangutkar told Herald that they have been suffering from power outages which get worse during the tourist season.
“In the last three weeks we have been suffering from power outages due to overload. Some last for around twenty minutes while others for around two hours. We have spoken to the electricity department and the panchayat in regards to the same. Electricity connections have been given without undertaking a study. At the same time there are a lot of illegal connections being given to those residing on Aquem hill and Nerul as well,” Kalangutkar said.
Another local on condition of anonymity pointed out that these power outages have an effect on the electrical appliances. “Almost everyone has a TV, fridge, laptop or other device damaged due to power fluctuation. Power outages are causing a lot of problem to the students answering their examinations. Imagine studying without lights and fan in the heat. The families living here for decades are being deprived of this basic amenity at the cost of illegal connections,” she said.
