Anjuna residents protest by eating 'pej’

Panaji: Residents of Anjuna staged an unusual protest outside the electricity department headquarters in Panaji on Thursday over allegedly inflated power bills, eating ‘pej’ (rice kanji) to symbolise that steep charges could push them into poverty.

“Bills have been shockingly high. Soon, we may have to survive on kanji because we will be left with no money after paying these electricity bills,” a protester said.

The protesters later met senior electricity department officials, including the chief electrical engineer, seeking an explanation for the higher bills. While officials attributed the increase to higher load usage, residents rejected the explanation.

Congress functionary Amit Palekar said the department should have informed consumers about the implications of higher load billing before issuing revised bills.

Congress functionary Amarnath Panjikar said that if govt genuinely wanted compliance, it could have launched a public awareness campaign through social media and messaging platforms such as WhatsApp before imposing higher charges.