While the State of Goa and its people are no strangers to multiple vexed issues which they are called upon to embattle from time to time, a perennial problem that seems to persist across all circumstances are the frequent power-cuts or the so-called electricity shut-downs whose occurrence frustrates one and all. And when the annual showery onslaught of the monsoon starts, this age-old quandary scales a new high, year after year.
These frequent power-cuts do not seem to be a category-specific issue as it causes inconvenience to almost every individual. Right from members of the business community, entrepreneurs, local businessmen, working professionals, students and even home makers — everyone faces growing distress in the face of sudden power-cuts.
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With the COVID pandemic stepping in, there has been a marginal shift from physical mode of functioning to the ‘online’ mode, which has in turn, augmented one’s dependency on technology and digital mechanisms which basically run-on electricity. Therefore, there being no reduction in the frequency of unexplained power-cuts, the anxiety experienced by the common man understandably keeps mounting.
Citizens across the State have been expressing concern over the impact of these power cuts on the electrical appliances in their homes and office premises. While the industrial community is lamentably left with no choice but to purchase inverters which cost a bomb, students across the State are also heavily troubled as unanticipated power-cuts rudely interrupt their online learning sessions. Even senior citizens, who prefer to stay peaceably in their homes, are compelled to forego their rightful quota of sleep due to power cuts at odd times.
The larger question that always seems to remain unanswered amidst these circumstances is, why should citizens, who pay enormous electricity bills each month, face these issues? Where citizens are promptly stepping up to ‘pay for power’, is it not the duty of the government to ensure that citizens enjoy uninterrupted power supply at all times?
It is a different scenario when an unprecedented happening results in current failure, but, apart from that, needless power cuts and shut downs have no logical explanation, as such.
The Electricity Department, upon being questioned by aggrieved consumers, routinely responds citing load-shedding and falling of trees on overhead electric lines as the causes for electricity failure and shut-downs, besides pointing to the outmoded nature of the system it works with, which recurrently leads to the snapping of the lines, thus causing further decline in the power supply across Goa.
So then, what can be done? Here are a few suggestions that could mitigate this problem: Concerned authorities need to step up and take charge to convert the overhead system of power supply to underground systems at a heightened pace. While few areas in the State have already witnessed underground cabling, majority terrains still continue to be victims of the overhead system and its constant breakdown.
Concerned authorities must continue to provide expert training sessions to engineers, managers, line-men besides other members of their technical and clerical staff to meticulously deal with these failures, with minimal inconvenience to consumers.
It is necessary to get to the root of the problem rather than adapting to temporary solutions. Hence, the powers-that-be must carry out a deep-rooted analysis that identifies the core cause of power cuts and formulate a procedure that can resolve the issue once and for all.
The Twitter handle of the Electricity Department of Goa recently created headlines for tweeting honest replies to complaints from consumers, wherein it was stated that the Department itself was also suffering from a power outage. While this episode did generate chuckles of laughter and was seen as an amusing incident, it would be highly appreciated if the concerned officials could display similar enthusiasm to resolve the actual issue at hand and relieve its citizens from the continual ‘hide and seek’ of our power supply!
