Team Herald
MARGAO: Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Wednesday paid a surprise visit to the Electricity Department at Margao and found lacunae at the various offices in the multi-floor building.
He advised the staff there on how to overcome lacunae and asked the officials to make the department people friendly.
Lamenting that he is not able to present a white paper on the department that he had promised when taking over as the power minister, he said he is determined to turn around the department and make it people friendly.
He visited not only all the offices in the building but also visited the stores adjacent to the Vidyut Bhavan and looking at the untidiness and mess at the various places kept asking the officials whether their houses were in a similar condition.
He rubbed his hand on a table of the Meter Testing Section to show the dust gathered there and told the officials that the desks have to be clean and asked all to clean up the department and not to convert it into godowns.
He asked the stores in charge to take away all the extra stock with the different AEs and keep them in the store as many meters and other products were found casually strewn around. He also said that people should not purchase any meter or any other electrical equipment which the department should supply.
Admitting that there are no proper systems set in place, he said he is focusing on doing that. He said that manually writing records will come to an end as technology has to be used to provide better facilities and directed officials to take to the computers for keeping records.
Admitting that nearly 70 per cent of the material in the meter testing room was scrap, he directed that it be cleaned immediately. He also asked officials to move for condemnation of material and contact him if the condemnation request is not responded to within a month.
“Whenever anybody complains about faulty meter, immediately a parallel meter should be provided and the faulty meter be checked,” Nilesh directed and asked the officials to inform the complainant about the status of his complaint instead of asking the people to keep visiting the department.
Disclosing that a proper power policy is in the making especially for street lights, Cabral said the department has now given only the Goa Tourism Development Corporation the responsibility of maintaining and installing new high mast lights.
STREETLIGHTS: He asked people to send him a SMS on his mobile number giving details like pole number, location and the complainant’s name in case the streetlights are not functioning. “Some people have been calling me only to test whether it is my number and this is making difficult for me to answer calls, hence I ask people to send me a SMS,” he said.
He pointed out that electricity department is not the only department to install or manage streetlights but there are around eight agencies doing this work which he said he came to know only after he became the power minister.
