MARGAO: “I have warned the Power Minister that there will be tremendous anger after the first bill of May is delivered to the domestic consumers,” said former power minister Digambar Kamat. He was speaking on the overall functioning of the Power Department.
Kamat informed that the higher unit consumption slab of the domestic consumers has touched the cost of that of commercial consumers and it is going to have a spiralling effect on the next bill. “The consumers who have been getting a bill of Rs 700 to 800 are going to get double the amount of bill this time,” he said.
He also informed that he has conveyed the same to the Power Minister Pandurang Madkaikar and told that he understands the same. However Kamat feels that Madkaikar is under pressure from Finance department due to the losses that the power department is facing. Kamat said that there is a need to go back to the earlier tariff charges to avoid a situation of resentment.
Kamat has expressed his discontent over the electricity department not using their staff optimally and for tendering every small work instead of doing it in house. “Since the underground cabling work will complete the need of staff during power outage or the cutting of trees is not going to arrive. This is a time where department have to put their staff to optimum use,” said Kamat.
Kamat also revealed that the machine used by the Department had earlier to find the fault of the underground cable has broken down and decommissioned. Hence there is a situation wherein the overhead staff of are working on underground cable complaints and the ones who were trained for underground have been transferred elsewhere.
