TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Relatives, friends and villagers bid a tearful adieu to Joshima Cardozo as her mortal remains were laid to rest at the St Rock Church cemetery Tollecanto-Velim on Friday.
A day after Joshima died due to suspected dengue, the Directorate of Health services is dispatching another team to Cutbona on Saturday to take stock of the situation, but the larger issues relating to sanitation, hygiene and presence of migrant workers in the fishing hub continue to occupy the minds of the villagers and the authorities.
It’s nearly six months since the Velim Village Panchayat had issued a provisional NOC to the Fisheries Department in June last to set up 50 toilets at the fishing jetty. The Cutbona fishing jetty is home for around 5000-7000 migrant labourers, hailing from the endemic states of Jharkhand and Odhisa, but there’s no changeon the ground reality, with the fishing jetty playing host to a mere 12 toilets.
That’s not all. There’s no system in place at the jetty to screen the migrant workers descending at the jetty before and after the commencement of the fishing season. Balli Primary health officer, Dr Vijaya says that health officials do screen the migrant labourers at the jetty, but sources in the know said that piece meal screening of the workers, coming from malaria prone areas, has failed to achieve the desired results. Unlike the construction workers, who are required to obtain the mandatory health cards, there’s no strict implementation of screening or issuance of health cards for the migrants at the fishing jetty.
Even the verification of the migrant workers leavest much to be desired, prompting the police to descend at the fishing jetty to tone up the verification exercise.
Says village Sarpanch Melvyn Sanches: “Issues including sanitation, hygiene and the migrant labourers needs to be resolved on top most priority. Right now, we are concentrating on implementing measures to stop the spread of dengue. There’s been no fresh cases of dengue reported from the area since December 15”.
Sanches said the Velim panchayat would soon write letters to the Directorate of Fisheries how to go about the job as the Cutbona fishing jetty plays host to 6000-7000 migrant workers.
Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado said the PWD had granted approval for the toilets, adding that he would up the construction work on priority basis. “These toilets along with other amenities such as rest rooms for the migrant workers were to come up in the land to be acquired by the government. But, since the land acquisition proceedings were dropped following public outcry, we will try to accommodate the toilets in the area housing the existing toilets”, Avertano said.
