Team Herald
PANJIM: Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar on Wednesday said his department has cracked down on power defaulters and in the last two months has disconnected 3100 connections for non-payment resulting in an additional revenue Rs 40 crore.
Addressing the media, Madkaikar said, “Some domestic and commercial consumers were not paying their bills and also there were no disconnections and this was loss of revenue.”
He added, “We have also caught theft cases and there are some cases wherein electricity was used but no bills were generated. The department used to earn revenue of Rs 120 crore per month but now in these two months of January and February, the revenue has gone up to Rs 160 crore.”
Revealing the statistics, the minister said that the department has disconnected 1800 connections in January whereas another 1300 were disconnected in February.
He further said that the electricity Department had formed a separate enforcement cell with the executive engineer reporting directly to the CEC for surprise checks of illegal connections and theft of energy, unauthorised change of category from domestic to commercial.
Madkaikar also revealed that the government has already formulated the street light policy and it is pending cabinet approval, wherein providing street light extensions, streetlight maintenance and energy bills shall be the responsibility of the Electricity Department.
He also said that 7.5 meter and 9 metre poles are in stock for replacement of deteriorated poles and procurement of conductors amounting to Rs 4.3 crore is pending government approval.
Madkaikar said the goal of the government is to supply uninterrupted power. “If we want 24×7 power supply there is a need for major upgrade of infrastructure which the State does not have as Goa does not produce electricity. At this moment I cannot assure 24 hours electricity as we have to depend on other states for supply of power,” Madkaikar said.
