CANACONA: Absence of a road from the village of Vavurla in Quepem cost Govind Velip his life. Velip suffered a heart attack and villagers had to carry him on their shoulders for over an hour till they reached a motorable road. However, he breathed his last on the way to the hospital.
The incident came to light after the locals uploaded on social media pictures of Govind Velip being lifted by locals on an easy chair covered with polythene sheet to protect him from rain.
It’s reported many a time that some villages in Canacona taluka and nearby areas still exist without proper motorable roads.
The latest to be in limelight was a hamlet named Marle in Poiguinim village whose entire villagers together with neighbouring village of Thirval boycotted the Lok Sabha elections that were held recently.
Like Marle, Ponsulemoll, Avlim and Nadkem in Cotigao while Cajugotton, Karla and Vavurla in Quepem also do not have motorable roads.
These villages, mostly inhabited by schedule tribes, are on mountains and pass through dense forest.
The promises made by several politicians in the past have just vanished like the monsoon rain water, lament most of the elderly villagers.
Post monsoon somehow the locals get together and repair the washed out portions of the muddy roads themselves while during the monsoon the rivulets crossing this road wash out stretches making it impossible for the locals to take vehicles up to their villages.
Ajay Velip, a local resident of Vavurla, speaking to this correspondent said that it takes more than an hour to reach the closest motorable road from his village and during medical emergencies and left with no other option they lift the patient on a chair to be taken to the hospital.
“In the case of Govind Velip the pain of taking him down the hills was stressful to the patient and he died while he was being shifted from Canacona Health Centre to Goa Medical College” Ajay said.
“If he had to get medical assistance just like all other Goans are normally provided for he would have lived,” said Krishna Velip from Indrawadi.
“Whenever a woman from the village is pregnant we keep her to our relative’s place till she delivers, other than that there is no option for us,” Velip lamented.
