Street lighting in Panjim is controlled through a box from one company, installed at various electrical poles to regulate the switching on/off operations of street lighting. Since this private party has stopped its operations, now the Electricity Department has taken over.
It so happens that the person/s designated are struggling to perform this duty in time due to various reasons such as rain, no raingear, no gloves, no departmental vehicle, no tools etc.
These operations, especially switching off, get delayed constantly and are done late. Recently, by chance, I questioned a staff member from the Electricity Department as to why he switched off street lights near my house so late, i.e. 11.30 am, almost midday.
He could not give me a satisfactory answer but only said that the private party left this duty. My problem is when these street lights are on for such long durations beyond scheduled timings. The energy consumption will be high and impact the government treasury. This is unnecessary wastage of energy and possibly is being reflected in our domestic billing. These days, electricity bills have become exorbitant.
The staff member also told me that somebody removed the whole locking system and that is the reason the door of the box is always open and honey bees, lizards and ants are entering inside the box. I saw him struggling and frantically trying to remove them. Will the Chief Electrical Engineer look into these problems faced by his employees?
