Goa power minister has paralysed industrial sector: Congress

Panaji, Aug 17: Congress in Goa today warned of filing a case against state Power Minister Milind Naik before Lokayukta for "inordinate delays" in granting load approvals for the industrial sector and crucial government-run projects.

"The act of (state) Power Minister Milind Naik to delay load approval for the industrial sector and some government projects for more than a year amounts to violation of Joint Electricity Regulation Commission guidelines," Goa Congress spokesman Sunil Kawathankar told reporters today.

Naik, in the recently-concluded session of the State Legislative Assembly, had admitted that nod to electricity load approval for crucial projects, like multi-level car parking in Panaji and Opa Water Treatment plant, were still pending before the electricity department since 2014.

Kawathankar today said that the party will file petition before Lokayukta against the minister. "The entire industrial sector is paralysed by Power Minister, who is not approving projects cleared by the Investment Promotion Board chaired by Chief Minister," he alleged.

The spokesman warned that Chief Electricity Engineer and other officials of electricity department will also be charged for corruption. He pointed out that as per JERC norms, an application for load approval has to be either approved or rejected within three days. "However, here, the applications have been pending for years," he alleged.

PTI