Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: In light of the Mopa case, in which power was being illegally and excessively drawn from a bungalow, the Electricity Department intends to step up its monitoring of similar illegal activities by State residents.
Electricity Department representatives will inspect every home in the State to make sure the load requested isn’t significantly greater than the amount of power being used by customers, Power Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar announced.
“Every single household in both municipal and panchayat areas will be thoroughly inspected,” Dhavalikar declared, adding that “appropriate action” would be taken in cases where there are discrepancies.
When a departmental team visited a bungalow at Mopa in the Pernem taluka earlier this week, they discovered obvious illegal immigrants. A notice demanding payment of several lakhs of rupees in penalties was then given to the customer.
In the meantime, Dhavalikar stated that customers must follow the guidelines in order for the department to provide high-quality power supply services.
He was answering a question about the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission’s (JERC) suggestion that the utility pay customers for subpar services, such as blackouts.
Dhavalikar, meanwhile, defended the recently implemented increase in the power tariff, claiming that Goa has the lowest cost of electricity among several States.
