Mangalore : State Minister for Energy D.K. Shivakumar said that state government has restricted to provide electricity connections for unauthorized buildings, constructed without obtaining land license and occupancy certificate issued by Urban Development department.

Speaking to the media on the sidelines during his visit to attend Onam celebration organized by Kerala Samajam, minister said that the government has taken the decision since many cases of providing electricity to unauthorized buildings were reported in the state.

He also said that if the ESCOM engineers fail to follow the instructions then they will be held responsible. In this case no political pressure will work, he said.
Speaking on the ESCOM department he said that, he has directed every ESCOM departments to set up helpline in every sub-division in the state so that they can attend the customer’s grievances. Such kind of helpline has been functioning successfully in Bangalore.

Further he said that, each constituency will have a committee of six members headed by MLA and meet up one’s in every two months to study the cases related to electricity. Apart from this, another committee will be set up to discuss grievances of the people in the taluk level.

The ESCOM departments have been directed to have a banking of transformers. If it present transformers fail to function then it must be replaced by 24 hours in the city, and by 72 hours in the villages, he added.