Saligao's civic and consumer cell had its meeting a fortnight ago. Sorry for not mentioning that earlier...

One of the issue that came up was about water billing. My neighbour Nicholas Sequeira mentioned that he got a whopping Rs 8000 bill for his water! Which is huge...

Others present felt that the meter was probably charging him for the air going through the, and had some technical solutions....

When I met villagers in Socorro, they also mentioned that the new electronic meters (for power supply) ended up with villagers paying huge bills. Apparently, the electronic meters are very sensitive, and even meter the power consumed by a so-called 'zero' watt bulb, while the earlier meters were more forgiving!

Maybe someone knowing this issue better could let us know.

Also raised at the Saligao meet was the question of the functioning of the village post office. Staff is limited, and a lot of time is dedicated to banking operations (the post office also maintains fixed deposits). Hence, it could take a long time before you get a stamp.

In recent months, I've personally come across a lot of my mail being torn, damaged or otherwise possibly deliberately opened en route. I don't know why this is happening now.

The issue of scrap yards in village fields also came up for discussion.

Some quarter at the Department of Science and Environment came up with a proposal for a watershed project in Saligao. But they wanted participation in a hurry, to enable funds that lapse by March-end to be used. Some caution was voiced about the possible implications of haphazardly-executed projects-in-a-hurry.

Consumer forum meetings are held on the second Sunday of each month. Those active in this group feel there could be more participation from the average villager. (Of course, running a network is always a lonely option... and activity is generally restricted to a few.)

Some of the issues I intended (because time was short, and the meet windsup by 1 pm) include the possibility of having a simple website for the consumer forum at the goa-india.org domain (at no cost), the need for bus timings to be made available in the village, the delay over broadband in Saligao (which is now apparently around the corner... but
for how long?), the waste of energy consumed by street-lights which are switched on by 5.30 pm and kept on sometimes till after 8 am, and the issue of electronic electricity-meters charging higher bills.

Please take an active role in Saligao-related consumer issues, if you'd like to see the same resolved. Maybe Mario or someone else could focus on the issues that were discussed before I joined the meet (or correct my misconceptions, if any).