Carmona sub-station calls in cops as outages provoke fury

Colva: The Carmona electricity sub-station personnel had to call police as infuriated villagers gathered to protest power outage for long hours, on Friday night.
Sarpanchs of Cavelossim, Carmona, Orlim, and Varca addressed the media on Saturday and threatened to hit the streets if regular supply is not restored in five days.
The events began to unfold at around 7.30pm. A light drizzle accompanied by slight thunder and lightning disrupted the power supply to the villages of Cavelossim, Carmona, Orlim, and parts of Varca.
It was only at around 9pm that the power was restored. But it shut down again within 15 minutes.
Cavelossim sarpanch Dixon Vaz said that he was parked at the Carmona sub-station from 7.30pm to 2.30am. “I noticed that power was supplied in a piecemeal manner — for 15 minutes to each village,” Vaz said. “That angered the people more. Given the hot and humid weather, it was difficult to do without fans.”
He said that for the entire month of May and to date, the power supply has been terrible but people have put up with scorching heat and erratic power supply with patience.
Carmona sub-station junior engineer Mahesh Gowda said the issue was not in his jurisdiction but added that one of the batteries of the feeder transformer had failed. “Therefore, we tried to provide or distribute power supply to villages,” he said.
Vaz disagreed with the method and said that officials should have informed the villages that the power supply would be restored after two to three hours. He said providing power for 15 minutes was not acceptable.
Chief electrical engineer Steven Fernandes told TOI that when the problem was brought to his notice, he immediately dispatched a battery from Panaji. In the meantime, he said, the junior engineers at the respective sub-stations tried to resolve the issue locally.
Gowda admitted that his office called the Colva police for protection. He said the tempers cooled down after the villagers understood the situation.
Power was finally restored at around 12.30am on Saturday only to be shut down at 4.30am.