MARGAO: A week after water supply to some parts of the commercial town was disrupted following damage to a water pipeline, agitated residents took to the streets blocking the road near the pick-up stand in protest.
Traffic flowing into the city from the market side was affected as the residents squatted on the road with buckets and water pots as a symbolic protest over the water shortage. The residents pointed out that they had to literally go without water for the last 10 days following the damage to the underground line and seepage of sewage water.
As the road was blocked for some time, Sub-divisional Magistrate Sangeeta Naik rushed to the spot and assured the residents to take up with the PWD official for supply of water on topmost priority. She assured to call for a joint meeting with the PWD and seek a status report on the underground pipeline as well as the drainage work underway at the pick-up stand junction.
The residents demanded to know why the authorities are silent on identifying the agency or party which was responsible for using a JCB machinery to excavate the road without any permission from the District Collector’s office and the Margao Municipal Council. Traffic on the busy road resumed only after the SDM said she would try to solve the water problem faced by the residents.
Later in the evening, SDM Sangeeta had a meeting with PWD water supply and roads and Municipal officials to work out a solution. The SDM issued directions to the PWD to arrange private water tankers if the department faced shortage of tankers to supply water to the beleaguered residents.
The SDM also sought to know how the road was excavated without the Collector’s permission, even as she issued directions to the PWD officials concerned to issue show cause notice to the engineer concerned for taking up the road excavation work without seeking prior permission.
Later in the day, however, the PWD has for the first time admitted before the SDM that the road was excavated at the instance of Margao MLA Digambar Kamat.
