TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Residents from Aquem, Margao and Navelim confronted the Electricity department officials in Margao, over the department’s inability to issue monthly bills for over a year.
The residents argued that the delay in issuing electricity bills spanning around three months and the insufficient repayment period has resulted in immense hardships to the consumers, especially the salaried class. The residents also complained receiving two bills in the last six months, with both repayment deadlines in April 2015.
The Margao citizens led by Cedric da Costa, the Navelim residents under the Navelim Civic Forum led by Joseph Vaz, and the Aquem-Alto residents met Executive Engineer Devadasan A, Aquem-Margao SD-I Assistant Engineer V M Bandekar, Navelim SD-III Assistant Engineer M Mahale, and Assistant Engineer Aquem-Margao Carlos Fernandes, among other department officials.
Consumers in Aquem-Alto and Margao were issued electricity bills on March 11, 2015 for the period dated June 28 – October 12, 2014 (107 days), with the last payment date being April 2, 2015. The same consumers were issued another bill on April 15, 2015 for the period dated October 13, 2014 – January 27, 2015 (107 days), with the last payment date being April 30, 2015.
The residents demanded that the repayment date be postponed to the first week of May to ensure that the consumers could pay the bills with their April salary. A related demand to waive off late fees up to May 10 was rejected.
Executive engineer Devadasan stated that nothing could be done regarding the repayment dates. However, he said that the department was currently sorting out the pending bills so as to reduce the burden on the consumers. He requested the citizens to bear the ‘inflated’ bills as there was a huge backlog, but failed to address the reasons behind it.
When questioned on the hike in standard power tariffs, Devadasan explained in detail about the cost of power in Goa as compared to neighbouring states.
To a query on constant power cuts in South Goa, especially Margao and Navelim, Devadasan informed that on most occasions the power supply was interrupted from the main grids, which Goa borrowed from its neighbours – Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He said the Margao electricity department promptly handled calls to any eventuality reported within its area and it had a 24/7 team to respond to emergencies.
He also blamed agencies that often dug up roads and damaged underground power cables in Margao, which affected the commercial capital’s power supply.
The residents cautioned the electricity department engineers to fix the ‘inflated’ bill problem as soon as possible, as the common man was already taxed with huge hikes in power and water tariffs.
They also requested the engineers to act tough against power thefts and have a round-the-clock monitoring system, especially in South Goa, over the repeated power thefts cases.
