CALANGUTE: The Calangute panchayat has claimed that PWD officials are trying to mislead the people by stating that there are no potholes in Calangute.
Contrary to what the PWD officials said, there are numerous potholes on many of the major roads in the tourism hub, claimed Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira. He further said a senior PWD official including chief engineer Allen Pereira had last Friday visited Calangute after the panchayat members had recently criticised PWD minister Nilesh Cabral for step-motherly treatment of Calangute.
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“The fact that the chief engineer and other top officials visited Calangute without informing the panchayat shows that they must have been directed by the minister to do so. But their claim that there are no potholes is a complete lie. People can see for themselves. The church junction road going toward Bhodkovodd is full of potholes. The road behind the church also has huge potholes. All the interior roads in Gauravaddo were dug for electricity cables and they have not been repaired for the last one year,” Sequeira pointed out.
“The people are asking us why the panchayat is not taking up the roads work, but they are PWD roads and their repair work can only be done by the PWD. When I had taken up repairs of the PWD roads some years ago, the PWD had filed FIRs against me and the cases are still going on in the courts,” he said.
The sarpanch said a year ago he had personally taken PWD minister Nilesh Cabral on a two-wheeler around the village to show him the condition of the roads. “But nothing has been done. They have only done patchwork repairs,” he said.
Senior PWD officials along with chief engineer, roads, bridges and national highway, had last week claimed that there are no potholes in Calangute. “In the last two years, the PWD has carried out road hot-mixing works on 27kms in Calangute constituency at a cost of Rs 22-cr. As soon as the JICA work is completed in 1-2 months, then we will do hot-mixing. In another six months all roads in Calangute will be hotmixed,” the chief engineer had said.
