PANJIM: Congress has decided
to approach the Goa Lokayukata against Power Minister Milind Naik for the latter
delaying load approvals to the industrial sector and some crucial government
projects for over a year, in violation of the Joint Electricity Regulation
Commission (JERC) guidelines.
Herald, in its Tuesday
edition, had reported that the crucial Opa Water Treatment Plant and the
State’s first multi-level car parking facility are amongst 91 projects whose
applications for release of load are pending before the Electricity Department
since 2014.
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The list includes some
leading private firms like Reliance Infrastructure, Commonwealth Developers,
Walworth Developers, Global Infrastructure, L&L Builders, Prime Builders,
Digital Ventures, Venkatrao Infra Project, Goa Marine Impacts Pvt Ltd, etc.
Addressing media persons,
Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawthankar alleged that the Minister charges Rs
2000 per KV of power release from the applicants, failing which the
applications of load approvals are kept pending for years. “This is nothing but
direct extortion,” he said.
“The entire industrial
sector is paralysed by the Power Minister, who is not approving even projects
cleared by the Investment Promotion Board chaired by the Chief Minister,”
Kawthankar stated.
The Congress leader said the
party will file a complaint before the Goa Lokayukta against Naik, Chief Electricity
Engineer and other officials of the Electricity Department for corruption. “As
per JERC norms, an application for load approval has to be either approved or
rejected within three days. However, here, the applications are pending for
years,” he said.
Kawthankar demanded that
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar immediately sack Naik. “In the interest of
industrial growth, state progress, government need to sack power minister
immediately,” he said.
The department has received
424 load approval applications since 2012, of which 333 applications have been
cleared.
