Team Herald
PANJIM: As Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar remains admitted in a Mumbai hospital, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has begun to deal with the electricity crisis gripping the State.
In an hour-long meeting, the Chief Minister asked the State Electricity Department to prepare a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to be adopted to avoid power shut downs.
Parrikar chaired the high-level meeting of department officials along with the District Administration, wherein it was decided to set up district level committees, which will be the licencing authorities to grant permission for road digging across major areas, in a bid to ensure that electricity cables are not damaged in the process.
“CM directed the officials to create Standard Operating Procedure for annual maintenance and trimming of trees so that untoward power outages are prevented during monsoons,” the CMO said in a statement released after the meeting.
“It was decided during the meeting that division wise meetings will be held from July, along with concerned MLAs to understand and resolve local power supply issues. Other issues and bottlenecks for upgradation of power infrastructure in the State were also discussed,” the CMO said.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Chief Electrical Engineer Neelkanth Reddy said that the chief minister took stock of the situation on the power front and issued several instructions. He said that rampant road digging for infrastructural projects is resulting in cutting of cables due to which there are power outages.
Referring to the committee, Reddy said there is currently a ban on road digging for three months beginning from May 15. “The committee will function all year round including the ban period. All the projects will have take permission of this committee before road digging,” he said.The committee will comprise representatives from all the departments, he added.
