http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=062010
Power Supply Crisis at Goa University by Nandkumar Kamat A serious and unprecedented power crisis has gripped Goa University campus throwing all our routines out of gear. I have lost the count of telephone calls I have made since Friday afternoon to Bambolim sub-station from where the Goa university campus is supplied with power. After spending 24 hours without power I could not take it anymore. I rang the Power Minister, Mr Digambar Kamat on June 18 and pleaded with him to restore our power supply. But nothing happened. The power continued to mock at us when we were working at the laboratory or on the computers. The people answering my calls from Bambolim began giving different explanations. Initially after heavy rains on Friday evening the power supply to university was cut. I thought that the repairs would be done on emergency basis. But there was no power that night. On Goa Revolution Day, I was sleepless and very exhausted. I was told that power would be restored after cutting a tree which had fallen on the transmission lines. Actually the lines which connect the Bambolim substation to the university transformer pass over a plateau and there are no tall trees anywhere. But I had to believe this version. “how long would it take”, the lady on the other side said- ``may be an hour”. Three hours passed. When I reached the laboratory the generator power from university’s sub-station somehow managed to keep our work going on two phases instead of three for some time. But the regular power supply had not been restored. Then I was lucky to get the Power Minister himself on the line. He promised to give instructions. But at the time of typing the article, on Sunday afternoon, I have no guarantee that power would not be interrupted again and again. Since morning I have turned on and then had to switch off the computer at least eight times. Since Saturday morning I have been struggling to finish this article to let the people know the pathetic state of our basic utilities in the fifth year of the 21st century at a location which is just two kilometers from the Governor’s residence and within a shouting distance form the state capital. Where would we complain? Most of the time the sub-station connection is engaged. There is no will within the university to aggressively pursue this matter with the power department as an issue of public importance. This may be my third article in this column during the past four years on the issue of the pathetic power crisis in Goa University campus. On Saturday evening again when I enquired another reason was given by the linesman who came on the phone. Apologetically he said that the feeder routing power to Goa University is corroded by sea salts and it is giving them trouble. He was silent when I asked him whether similar feeders supplying power to Raj Bhavan and NIO-Dona Paula area are protected from corrosion. Why the power department fools us by organising pre-monsoon maintenance shut downs? If the university feeder is corroded then it needs to be replaced promptly. If overhanging tree branches cause problems then chop those off. On Sunday morning there was no power. This time the inquiries revealed that some jumper had malfunctioned. Bad feeders, jumpers, conductors-what the power department has been doing all these years?. What are their priorities? Why the VIP and VVIP areas are well-looked after? Goa University campus is often an island of darkness at night when the rest of area from Bambolim to Donapaula is well illuminated. The University has underground cabling so there are no problems even during the storms for internal power distribution. Then why single out the Goa university campus for second class treatment? The frequent power interruptions have seriously affected the academic, teaching and research schedules. The damage to the sensitive electrical and electronic instruments despite using surge suppressers and voltage stabilizers is incalculable. It has affected all our schedules. No class, practicals, demonstrations or research experiments can be planned without uninterrupted and regular, stabilized power supply. Like health and transport, education and research are also essential commodities. The university spent the generous amount of Rs 18 lakh for removing the old, corroded electric poles and replacing these with RCC poles. However, the external power supply and transmission from Bambolim sub-station has not improved. The power department despite the support and backing from the minister himself has not done enough to identify the problems and improve the power supply to Goa university campus. We shudder to think about three more months of monsoon. The campus is surrounded by several mosquito breeding sites. New slums have come up with migrant labourers. It is just a matter of time when Malaria hits us. Lack of power also cuts off our water supply because the electric pumps do not work in the morning. We continue to suffer without both power and water supply. We have to stock candles and mosquito coils in anticipation of power failures. During the past three days I have been able to sleep for only eight hours instead of the normal twenty one. With sleep deficit compromising our health and our efficiency how the government and the society at large expects us to deliver the goods? I am getting deeply alienated and demoralised within this system. I also know the trouble and the risks which linesmen of the power department and their junior engineers take despite bad weather conditions. I have seen them working past midnight in stormy weather to give us some relief. But if the quality of transmission equipments is itself poor then they can not do much. As compared to the past the power supply situation is gradually deteriorating. And if the explanation is purely technical then the solutions should also be technical and very well within the financial capacity of the government. Situation should not be allowed to drift so badly that a citizen has to call the Power Minister himself to look into the complaint. If there is a brief power failure, it is understandable. But how can you tolerate a 24 to 40 hours power shutdown? Or interruptions every five to ten minutes? Or nights without power supply? The Goa University would complete 20 years of it’s existence on June 30. I would not be surprised if we spend that day without power in the campus. Students may be happy if classes are cancelled. Teachers would be free to purchase candles. Research would grind to a halt and everyone would suffer timely and silently somehow expecting that things would improve automatically. Perhaps they will if our power supply comes from a corrosion proof VIP feeder. -------- Forwarded Message -------- Posted from a friend in Vasco: strangely, we at vasco have been having almost the same problems with power supply that you describe in saligao. heard a few days back that supporters of the previous govt are sabotaging the power supply everywhere to give a bad name to this govt and more so to get back at the power minister. didn't believe it at first, but now after reading your posting today am beginning to wonder????? is it a coincidence that when one calls up to the department here, the replies are exactly the same as you have been getting there, polite surprise that lights have gone, asking whether one phase or three have gone, and saying they will check up. btw, parts of vasco near the police station area have not had power since 7pm last night (almost 24 hrs now) and in the areas where there is power, it goes off every half hour or so for a period of 15 - 20 mins. ---------------------- From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue Jun 21, 2005 4:06 pm Subject: [saligaonet] Power woes, June 21 [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send EmailSend Email On June 20, we spent much of the evening, and early night, without power. It's 4 pm on June 21, and the power has gone again. A phone to 2409190 (the skeleton-staffed office at the Saligao panchayat) draws a polite response, voicing surprise that lights have gone, and asking whether one phase or three have gone. All three! The voice offers to phone back, after checking up with the sub-station. Generally, one gets phones-off-the-hook or call-someone-else replies. Saligao's power woes are hard to understand. Apparently, we get fed our power from the Baga and Porvorim feeders. Since we are on the end of the route in the first case, any problem en route means our power gets cut off. Maad-poddla vater (there's a coconut tree fallen along the route), one was told. So, no power! I'm typing this with an inverter backup! Could someone from the Saligao civic and consumers forum give us an insight into what exactlly the problem is? Maybe a coordinated action could help us get a faster solution. We've been suffering this for simply too long! FN PS: After the April 20 cyclonic winds, one part of Saligao had no power for 36 hours, and the other for 24 hours! Earlier this month, half the village had no lights for an entire night. The other half, for another night! Apart from that, we have regular breakdowns of 3-4 hours with amazing regularity. -- Frederick Noronha (FN) <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Independent Journalist From: "Frederick Noronha (FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun Jun 19, 2005 10:53 am Subject: [saligaonet] More power plaints [EMAIL PROTECTED] Send EmailSend Email Last night (Saturday-Sunday), it was the turn of the Arrarim feeder. Earlier, on Friday-Saturday night, much of the northern part of the village was in the dark. This time round, power went off around 8 pm Saturday, and came back only by 9 am on Sunday, only to go again by 10 am. In between, the lights came on about 20 times, and went off after varying gaps of three seconds to 15 minutes! I'm typing this email on inverter power-supply. This is getting really trying. We need some way to impress on the authorities how difficult it makes life and work in the village. BTW, it might help if as many of us could complain when there's a problem. The Saligao sub-station number is 2407 301. At Porvorim, the number is 241 7711. There's also the Saligao electricity office (at the panchayat) whose number is 2409 190. Yesterday, one tried ringing up Chief Electrical Engineer T H Rao on his residence number 275 2211, but was told it was a "wrong number". Of course, the public servants, known for their ?efficiency, are known to pass the buck. For much of the past night, the Saligao sub-station (on the hilltop) was apparently off the hook. "We get calls all the time; come here and see," one was told on Sunday morning. The electricity staffer also said, "We are not doing this on purpose." He went on to rattle how the transformers at Arrarim had developed some problem. It may be recalled that after the Parrikar government was ousted from power, the Congress made the allegation that moles within the electricity department were harassing the public by sabotaging power supply. One can't help feeling that something of the same might be happening within the Saligao; we've seen how past governments would light up or paint the church when the local MLA was in their good books. Likewise, we have seen how various political forces (from government officials to other political parties, and their local supporters) in the state have played politics over the Salmona issue, maybe in an attempt to alienate the local MLA from his voters. As the situation remains festering, the sense of anger among the villagers obviously grows! Whatever the truth of the matter, when the infrastructure collapses over such long periods of time in the village, everybody suffers. After the April 20, 2005 storm, some areas of our village got power restored only after 36 hours!....
