WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: Environmentalists are of the opinion that if the money being spent on the transmission lines is used to provide roof top solar panels, all would get free electricity. This would also honour Prime Minister's promise of establishing 358 MW of solar power by 2022, they claim
Speaking to Herald they also said that providing solar panels initiative will help to generate employment in Goa.
Reportedly, Power Minister Sudin Dhavalikar had pitched for the Tamnar power project stating that the same is important for Goa, which depends on other States for electricity. He had even stated that the Tamnar power transmission project will commence after the monsoon.
Environmentalist Abhjit Prabhudesai demanded clarity on how the project will impact electricity bills.
"The Power Minister of Goa, Sudin Dhavalikar, has made a completely irresponsible statement that the Tamnar power project will start after monsoon, even though forest and wildlife clearances in both Goa and Karnataka need to be obtained for the alignment proposed by Supreme Court, after feasibility and impact assessment studies are done,” said Prabhudesai.
He said the Power Minister has justified this irresponsible statement by an equally negligent attitude towards Goa's contribution of achieving 358 MW of solar power by the end of 2022, which is compulsory in view of the Prime Minister's commitment to the world community for fighting climate change.
The Power Minister is bound by our country's fight against global warming, which requires us to stop building transmission lines for dirty power derived from burning coal in Chhattisgarh and instead give free roof top solar panels to all Goans, urged Prabhudesai.
"One important point needs to be kept in mind and that is the control and operation of our electricity supplies which will be in the hands of a private company, with no clarity on how it will impact our electricity bills, if the proposed project is completed,” said Prabhudesai.
He further charged the government for hiding the implications on the bills to be paid by Goan population.
He said that one of the documents clearly shows indicates that Goa may see a cumulative loss of Rs 1,367 crore by the end of FY 2018-19, which can be recovered if Goa gets a weighted average tariff increase on ABR for all consumers of 14%, 13% in FY 2016-17 and FY 2017-18 and 11% in FY 2018-19.
Siddharth Karapurkar said that public money is wasted for useless projects by the government.
