Beginning his discourse during the discussion on demands for the power department, Adv Carlos first praised the the minister and his chief electrical engineer Steven “on the wonderful work they have been doing especially in respect of my constituency” while not excluding EE, JE, AE, linesman line helpers who he said “work in very harsh weather, they work in very strong rainy conditions in the pouring rain to restore our electric supply.”
However, Carlos pointed out some deficiencies in the distribution system.
“There are frequent problems at some transformers. Bastora which is under the Guirim feeder, Martha DTC in Gorjuem, Carona transformer is constantly supplying low voltage, Borvond Vaddo Nachinola called the Borvondd 8 transformer. We are receiving constant complaints from the group,” he said.
“We have a helpline group in WhatsApp. Complaints are coming to us. 1912 is not working. Instead of centralising in one number. If you can try to decentralise it so that the complaints can go at the section level and subdivision level so that they can reach faster and they can be prompt,” he said.
Adv Carlos also called for restructuring the entire sub division of Aldona constituency. One (subdivision) looks after Nachinola and Moira. “The other villages from Bastora, Ucassaim, Aldona, etc are one. Logistically, technically and operationally it will work out if you have everything under one sub division,” he said.
The minister also called on the department to tackle the problem of “visual pollution” which he said was marring the green landscape of Goa.
“Everywhere you go, on every electricity pole you see big advertisements for casinos. If you are a tourist coming to Goa you want to see the beautiful landscape. You don’t want to take back photos of huge casino advertisements. The tourism department is spending so much money to promote tourism, maybe you can seek some compensation for them for the revenue loss,” Adv Ferreira said.
He also raised the issue of road digging, which he said was a risk to commuters.
They have dug it up like there is no tomorrow. Some places they have dug up without any manner or basis. Digging in the middle of the road.
“We have in Gorjuem in Corjuem, the road completely dug up, people are actually falling inside. In Carona panth, people are also falling. People should not suffer. At the end of the day whatever work is being done, care and precaution should be taken. Our duty can’t be abdicated by passing the blame on someone else,” he said.
He also raised the issue of shortage of staff in the department and the power fluctuations which are damaging people’s appliances, he said.
With regard to the PM Surya Kiran scheme, the MLA questioned the state government for a shoddy application tracking system.
“There are some discrepancies and modalities on implementation. I’m told your department is working on these aspects to fine tune it. The JE and the AE don’t know how to use this. The Admin panel cannot even see applications which are online. If they access the system they should know how many applications are pending, how many are being filed, how many are closed. They don’t have this access. I’m told there is no system for tracking an application which they can have access to. I’m told during Cabral’s time there was an offline time limit which was given to fill in, suppose there was lacuna. But now you are filing online and waiting for God to help you,” he said.