Team Herald
PANJIM: In just a year, four lives have been lost in accidents that happened because of ongoing Smart City work in and around Panjim, but the government or the Smart City authorities haven’t even managed to honour the memory of the dead with proper compensation.
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Of the four, only the family of Arti Gond has received Rs 4 lakh, and that too after her mother appealed for help to Revenue Minister and local MLA Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate. Arti (20) died after a tree fell on her while she was crossing the road near the municipal garden in Panjim on July 21.
However, when 21-year-old Ayush Halarnkar’s life was snuffed out after his two-wheeler fell into a pit dug for Smart City sewerage work, there was no conversation on compensation. “I have no information whether government had announced compensation,” said Ayush’s father Rupesh, who is a Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) councillor along with wife Aarti. The accident that took Ayush’s life took place at Mala, Panjim, on New Year Day. Ayush was the son of Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) concillors Rupesh Halarnkar and Aarti.
“We received Rs 4 lakh from the government three days after my daughter’s death. But my daughter was a working member of the family and used to pay the rent, buy rations and also get medicines for her father, who is suffering from heart ailment,” Babita, Arti’s mother, told O Heraldo, choking up.
The money, released from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund, can’t fill up the void left in the family’s life as their livelihood struggle continues. Babita works as a sweeper at Patto, while another daughter worked in a private shop. She also has a son studying in class IX.
After Arti’s death, the CCP started trimming the branches of old trees and checking if they had become weak. In Ayush’s case, the contractor carrying out Smart City sewerage works had neither put a warning sign nor the mandatory red lantern to caution motorists at night.
