Electricity supply to Canacona taluka became operational during the Portuguese regime and the whole taluka was given electricity in a phased manner only in the year 2013. One village that was left out was Nadkem in Cotigao which falls in the wildlife sanctuary zone. Here, electricity was supplied by underground cabling as the forest department objected to erection of poles and overhead conductors.
People, however, are sore because of the frequent power failure, every day and night. They blame the electricity department personnel for the frequent failure and accuse them of not performing their duty. 40 percent of the disruption of power supply was attributed to falling of trees and branches on the electricity supply bare cables that snap and also create short circuits.
A source in the electricity department said that they undertake the regular task of pruning of branches but some of the tree owners protest and in such cases, they become helpless and have to abandon the task. Hence, when these trees fall, power is cut off.
The conductors are made of aluminum and are old and corroded. It was witnessed that below the cables, white aluminum residue falls on the ground and the cables become fragile. Hence, frequent breaking of the aged cables has become the order of the day.
That apart, the ceramic insulators get over heated during the course of distribution of power from point to point on each pole and they rupture. A mere crack in the insulators results in a short circuit and power is disrupted. It becomes a difficult task for the linesmen to locate the ruptured insulator.
Due to the hilly terrain, there are no approach roads at most places where electricity poles are laid and linesmen have to walk to the location. That apart, linesmen are not given proper tools and safety equipment. Kushali Gaonkar of Shristal said, “Last week, there was power failure in the village and he called the electricity department. The linesmen came and found that a branch of a matured tree had fallen on the electricity cable and snapped. The linesmen could not locate the fault and power was restored only the next day.”
Electricity supply to Canacona is routed from Xeldem via Cuncolim and if there is disruption at these sub-stations, then power to Canacona is disrupted. The electricity department personnel are helpless in this case. There are no vehicles allotted to the department. They hire private vehicles to transport materials to the place of repair work. There is an acute shortage of manpower to cover this vast area.
During the tenure of ex-power minister, Digambar Kamat, the work of laying parallel lines from Cuncolim to Canacona and subsequently underground cabling work was tendered but is yet to be completed due to various reasons. The forest department refuses to give permission to cut old and matured trees along the side of the electricity poles. The falling of trees keep disrupting the power.
Locals describe Canacona as ‘yemkond’ which means a place of hell in Konkani.
