Team Herald
MARGAO: At the district-level review meeting to assess how the administration is prepared to prevent the spread of vector-borne diseases, stakeholders came down heavily on State agencies for not doing enough to address the various problems across South Goa, especially the handling of the migrant labour workforce.
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GOACAN coordinator Roland Martins who was part of the bi-annual meeting held at the Matanhy Saldanha Complex, urged the South Goa District Collector Asvin Chandru to ensure that the concerned government departments implement the law failing which he would have to approach the courts to give directions to the government.
Representatives of government departments like Health, Labour, Fisheries etc were present for the meeting and they gave updates
about the work they have been doing and they defended the action they have taken so far.
While Martins acknowledged that there has been some improvement since their last meeting, he gave a list of suggestions about what can be done to tackle issues in different sectors including getting the Labour Department and Health Department to ensure that labour supply contractors are registered and construction sites are inspected.
The Collector agreed to write to the heads of various departments like Fisheries, to review the sanitary conditions migrant labours at the Cutbona jetty; Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) for stopping labourers residing at the Cuncolim Industrial Estate; and PWD and Municipalities for issuing an advisory for those households where water supply is less, and open barrels are used to store water.
The Margao Urban Health Centre (UHC) stated that they have been coordinating with the Margao Municipality for running joint drives in removing receptacles that can be potential breeding sites for mosquitoes. Health officers of other Health Centres said they needed the local bodies to provide support like transport, etc.
The Health Department also shared statistics of vector-borne diseases of the previous year, action taken in the high-risk areas and that the chikungunya cases that had risen a few months had been brought down to zero.
At this point, it was highlighted that chikungunya cases that began at Moti Dongor Margao could have come to Goa from Karwar.
