MARGAO: Power Minister Nilesh Cabral, on Saturday, ruled out any hike in power tariff till such time that the people in Goa get power supply for 24 hours. Cabral also agreed that he will need more than 45 days he had sought to revamp the Electricity Department.
Speaking to media persons, he said that he would seek a one-time relaxation in the rules and regulations and qualification criteria to fill up the top posts in the Department. “The problem is that we have people officiating at senior level and there are no full time persons appointed which I want to change,” he said.
He pointed out that besides the Chief Electrical Engineer four Superintending Engineers have to be also appointed and said that ideally he would want to have Goans promoted instead of recruiting somebody else which could cause bad blood in the department.
Ddmitting that he has completed nearly 30 of the 45 days he had sought to revamp the department, Nilesh said he would need some more time as he had inherited a department that was not properly monitored.
“Very shortly we shall be commissioning two cables that were laid seven years ago from Porvorim to the Assembly Complex that have not been commissioned as yet,” he said and added that similarly in Margao and Fatorda cables were laid at a cost of around Rs 40 cr but not commissioned as yet.
“We may have to cut the cables at some places and put fresh cables so that this project started around 9 years back can be commissioned,” he said adding that he was not bothered about blaming anybody but wanted the department to deliver the goods.
While pointing out that new cables have to be laid, new transformers to be fitted and various other infrastructure work to be done, he said he wanted people’s co-operation by giving their consent to take the infrastructure through their land.
“We will not acquire their land but want their consent to use their land for which we shall compensate them up to 70 per cent of the land cost,” he said adding that these are some ideas that he was throwing up.
He said the Electricity Regulatory Commission wants the department to make profit but he said he would not allow any hike in the power tariff till the department sets the infrastructure in place to provide 24-hour power supply.
“I am looking at Private Public Participation through joint venture to lay down the infrastructure and I do not think people will mind paying extra when they receive good service and uninterrupted power supply,” he said.
