Team Herald
CALANGUTE: Anjuna-Caisua residents have given the Public Works Department (PWD) until September 10 to repair the village’s dilapidated roads, failing which they will close the road from St Michael’s Church to the petrol pump junction. In view of the monsoons, they are willing to settle for a temporary fix.
“The roads of Anjuna-Caisua are very bad, and hence, difficult to negotiate even during the day. These roads are causing many hardships for the villagers. Ganesh Chaturthi is around the corner, but the authorities have failed to carry out even temporary repairs,” said local Raju Shirodkar, while addressing the press near a potholed road in Anjuna.
Another local Sandesh Khorjuenkar said, “The roads of Anjuna were dug to lay electric cables for a private firm, but the same were not repaired and are posing a threat to the villagers and other commuters today. We understand that hot-mixing of roads is not possible right now, but at least something should be done temporarily. We are giving the PWD executive engineer until September 10 to repair the roads, or else we will be forced to come on the roads and block the stretch from St Michael’s Church to the petrol pump on September 12.”
Local Shiva Kochrekar stated, “Although this is a tourist area, the roads are horrible. The locals have stopped travelling on the roads for fear of getting in accidents. We raised the matter at the gram sabha and asked the authorities to repair the roads by the deadline. We hope the authorities will comply immediately.”
Deputy sarpanch Savio Almeida informed that the panchayat had written several letters to the PWD requesting that the roads be repaired, but to no avail.
