Team Herald

MARGAO: Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Saturday assured Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao and voters of the constituency that all streetlight problems in the constituency will be addressed before Christmas.

While disclosing that the maintenance of streetlight contract is in the process of being foreclosed, Cabral said, “The 11 KVA and 33 KVA conductors are also being replaced.”

Cabral was in Benaulim to discuss the power woes that people face. Sarpanchas and panchayat members of the Benaulim, Colva, Varca, Carmona, Cavelossim and Seraulim also listed the various problems they faced.

Most of them were complaining about the maintenance of the streetlights while some complained about poles not being supplied despite having paid the fees months in advance. 

While many appreciated Cabral for being accessible to the people it was also suggested to him to make the junior engineers also accessible to public too.

The minister disclosed that the 10-year streetlight maintenance contract is in the process of being foreclosed after having completed only two years and said that hopefully the State government will have to pay only Rs 116 crore instead of the stipulated Rs 270 crore to end the contract.

While appreciating the Cavelossim and Carmona panchayats for endorsing the streetlight policy suggested by him, he appealed to more panchayats to support the same and disclosed that at present 75 panchayats have accepted the policy and added that once he gets approval from another 15 or 20 panchayats he will declare the streetlight policy.

He said that while 1.76 lakh LED lights have been installed in the State and said tenders have been invited to install another 45,000.

He said, “Under the policy domestic consumers will have to pay 5 paise per unit and commercial consumers will have to pay 8 paise per unit towards the streetlight maintenance and once this policy comes in force the panchayat will not collect any streetlight tax from people nor maintain the streetlights which will be done entirely by the department.”

He disclosed that the department will be spending around Rs 3,000 crore to replace the 11 KVA and 33 KVA conductors besides changing around 1,000 transformers and appealed to people not to object to the site when transformers are being installed.

He advised people not to pay any extra amount for getting a new connection. 

“The consumer has to pay only Rs 50 per meter for electricity connection to the house from the nearest electricity pole and if anybody asks for more money please contact me. And I shall take the necessary action,” he said while distributing his calling card to the gathered people to contact him.

Following Churchill Alemao’s request, the power minister directed his officials to release 200 bulbs immediately to illuminate the Benaulim Constituency.