Tarun Karthick
Campbell Bay, 19 August 2021
Electricity is the most basic need of the general public today. The Electricity Department of Andaman and Nicobar Administration is responsible for providing power in the entire Union Territory.
Anyone who has lived in Campbell Bay will without a doubt accept that the Island has one of the best services when it comes to electricity. The power cuts in Campbell Bay are very minimal and on an average day the power only goes off only when the department switches between the Diesel Generation Sets.
The general public sees only the quality of service however a lot of effort is put in every day to maintain the electrical supply by the staff who works without adequate manpower, equipment, materials and infrastructure.
The sanctioned strength of the Electricity Department at Campbell Bay is 124 whereas currently there are only less than 50 staff members working in the department at Campbell Bay. Every month staff members are retiring and there is very little effort from the higher authorities to post their replacements.
The staff of the department are anyhow managing the show and providing the best possible services to the customers.
Electricity Department at Campbell Bay even suffers every month because of a shortage of office supplies and other consumables. The department is reportedly managing with just one working computer.
There is also an acute shortage of materials required for the maintenance of transmission lines and other power infrastructure. The Aerial Bundled Cables which carry 11000 volts are being joined at various places by the departmental staff using fuse wires because the Aerial Bundled Cable joining kits are not being supplied to the Campbell Bay Division of the department. These joints made on Aerial Bundled Cables using fuse wire are not insulated and can become the cause of a major accident one day.
The department has two trucks to help maintain the power lines at different places and to move men and equipment. One of the trucks is non-functional because of the lack of a battery for almost one year.
The local officials of the Electricity Department, Campbell Bay are reportedly demanding small consumables and equipment in adequate quantity for long, but the higher authorities ignore their plight and ask them to manage in whatever is available.
The department struggles with everything small and big and is forced to work without proper resources at Campbell Bay. To provide services to the general public, the local officials of the electricity department are every day taking decisions which can later cause accidents and harm people.
The office building of the department is also in a pathetic state and needs urgent renovation.
Nicobar Times was further informed that the local electricity department was earlier provided with man-days against which they could hire local manpower and get their work done. Currently, they have lost the man-days that was earlier provided because 20 DRMs were promised to them by the Andaman Public Works Department after a meeting by the higher authorities, but according to sources the promise of providing the 20 DRMs from APWD, Campbell Bay to Electricity Department, Campbell Bay was not fulfilled citing shortage of manpower by the APWD, which has made the functioning of the department more difficult.
The department is able to manage the power supply in Campbell Bay only with the help and support of the general public.
At almost all places Electricity Department provides computer-generated bills but in Campbell Bay, the practice of manual billing is followed to date. The process of manual bills requires a lot more manpower than computerised billing, but the department has not been able to start computerised billing because of the lack of proper equipment and trained manpower.
The Assistant Engineer who heads the department at Campbell Bay doesn’t even have the power to make small purchases locally, which is causing a lot of problems. According to the sources the staffs of the department even have to struggle for getting insulation tapes to repair the wiring.
The only Light Motor Vehicle available with the department for the commute of the officials is non-functional for the last year.
The quarter of the staff of Electricity Department is also in a pathetic state. It was informed to Nicobar Times that the quarters are leaking, the fixtures are broken and there are several problems being faced by the families and the staff of the department every day.