CANDOLIM: With only two staffers working at a time, the Candolim electricity sub-station is facing difficulties in attending to calls of power outages in Candolim and is relying on the Saligao sub-station staff.
As per reliable sources, the total sanctioned strength of the sub-station is 27 with nine staff expected to work per shift. However, per shift, there is only an operator and a helper at the sub-station who addresses power supply needs of residents and tourists of the coastal belt of Candolim and its vicinity.
Even if the staff from Saligao sub-station is called, the work of restoring power supply gets delayed as the station is 5 kms away from Candolim. With traffic jams order of the day particularly during tourism season, there is even more delay. Affected residents are put to a lot of inconvenience.
Sources in Calangute and Candolim panchayats lamented that though the tourism hub contributes a lot of revenue, the department has failed to meet their power supply needs. They mocked at the government saying that both the panchayats pay more than a crore yearly for such poor services.
Assistant engineer Denis Rodrigues said that monthly the sub-section allots more than 100 new connections and consumers seek 24-hour distress call service but the department fails at times due to shortage of staff.
Rodrigues also said, “During weekends, the load is more as tourists frequent the beach belt. This forces us to carry out load-shedding during peak hours from 6.30 pm to 10 pm for the star hotels who in turn use generators which is a loss to the department. Lack of staff to crack down on illegalities is causing loss to the department as we are overloaded with work.”
“The department has started cracking down on guest houses and 40 people using domestic power connection for commercial use have been booked and the department has collected Rs 28 lakh as fine. The department will get revenue of a couple of crores more for which we need more staff,” said Rodrigues.
Ivo Dias, in-charge of the billing section, said, “People expect monthly bill system which is not possible as we are running short of staff. A clerk is overloaded with 1,000 bills every day to upload on the system. At times, the staff goes on leave which delays the work. There are 30,000 LT consumers in our jurisdiction and Calangute is the highest revenue generator in Goa on low-tension connection. The department has served notices to defaulters and if they do not mend ways, the connection will be disconnected.”