Panaji : A routine drive against illegal internet cables took an unexpected turn on Sunday when the Electricity Department disconnected an unauthorised service line tangled across electricity poles—unaware that it was supplying internet to the North District Collectorate.
The sudden outage slowed several crucial administrative operations, including those related to the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, the upcoming Zilla Panchayat elections, and emergency response work following the club fire incident.
The internet disruption began early Sunday and continued into Monday, forcing staff to improvise.
Officers were seen tethering their laptops to mobile hotspots to access basic online systems.
“We understand the drive was important, but the disconnection has severely impacted ongoing deadlines,” a senior collectorate official said. “Critical work like uploading SIR data, scrutinising ZP nomination-related queries, and preparing compensation documentation for victims of the club fire has all slowed down.”
Much of the administration work carried out by the collectorate relies on centralised digital portals.
Electricity Department officials said that the action was part of a crackdown on unauthorised cables posing safety hazards.
“Our teams removed illegal lines hanging dangerously on poles,” a departmental source said.
“We were not aware that the collectorate’s service was routed through such a connection.”
