PORVORIM: In a major move, Power minister Nilesh Cabral announced that the govt has initiated the process to formulate a streetlight policy for Goa, by which all the streetlights across Goa would be centralised and brought within the ambit of the Power dept.
Informing the House that at present the streetlights are not under the Power dept but that the project has been given to the ESL Company, a govt of India undertaking, Cabral said that once the policy is formulated, the streetlights would be supplied, installed and maintained by the dept.
He informed that due to the failure of the company to maintain the streetlights, the power dept, who had no role to play in this, faced the ire of the public. “Also as per the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC), local bodies, who charge consumers for maintenance of street lighting have to pay the bills, within their jurisdiction,” he said.
“Once, the policy is finalised, we will ask the local bodies to stop collecting the fees from users,” Cabral said responding to the Zero Hour mention made by NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, who said that he has to face the public anger for non-functioning of streetlights in the Benaulim constituency.
The minister added that the dept has already written to all 191 panchayats and 11 municipalities for their suggestion on the policy. “However, only 68 panchayats have written to us stating that they want to be part of the policy,” he said.
Cabral said that the policy will help the department standarise streetlights and maintain all of them. “Once, the policy is in place, we can also cancel the ESL Company’s maintenance contract, which is for ten years,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Minister assured that department will ensure that all the streetlights are operational before Ganesh Chaturthi festival.
