TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The contentious issue of presence of migrants at the Cutbona jetty, illegal water taps, besides nets stored in the residential locality dominated an awareness program on dengue organised by the Velim panchayat on Monday.
Agitated villagers questioned the health officials as well as the Velim Sarpanch Melvyn Sanches on the dengue situation at Cutbona, while demanding concrete measures to stop dengue from spreading to the village.
President of Cutbona Boat Owners Union Seby Cardozo demanded to know from Director of Health Services, Dr N S Korgaonkar whether the health services have any plan in place to tackle the migrant workers employed on vessels docked at the Cutbona fishing jetty. He reiterated his demand for screening all migrants employed on the fishing vessels as precautionary measure.
A demand was raised by the villagers to cap the number of fishing vessels operating from Cutbona jetty saying the existing infrastructure has failed to keep pace with the growing requirements.
The issue of public water taps also figured at the meeting, with villagers claiming that the taps are either illegal or have been misused by the migrant workers. Sarpanch Sanches claimed that public water taps do not fall within the domain of the village panchayat since the NOCs are issued by the Health Department. In this connection, inspection of the water taps has been fixed on Tuesday along with the health officials.
Seby and other villagers raised the question of fishing nets stored in residential locality at Cutbona. When the sarpanch pointed out that he has written a letter to the Collector, fisheries department and the BDO for an inspection of the nets, the villagers warned that the locals of Cutbona would be forced to remove the nets from the locality.
Dr Korgaonkar later told the media that the dengue situation at Cutbona is well under control, adding that efforts are on for a coordinated action with the cooperation of the locals to stop the further spread of the disease.
