Penal action is non-negotiable for Miramar road mess
If the Miramar road was not the Lutyens version of Delhi and if Sharada Mandir school wasn’t the equivalent of Vasant valley school where, when you chuck a piece of paper, it lands on the child of a VVVIP, let us admit, it wouldn’t have got so much attention. But should the status of the road and the school as the showcase thoroughfare of the most beautiful state capital in India, disqualify it from being the focus of a serious debate around the governments insensitivity towards its people?
In fact these hyper local and people centric debates are far more important to the immediate and day to day lives of our people that those of national governance, economy or foreign policy. As a local peoples newspaper this is our priority and that is why we are not letting the government induced colossal civic mess on the Miramar Dona Paula road, especially in front of the Sharada Mandir school go unchallenged.
It is the height of supreme insensitivity on the part of the state’s premier infrastructure agency the Goa State Industrial Development Corporation (GSIDC) to literally cut through the road, leaving huge gaping holes and pits and not restore it before the monsoons. If the GSIDC pushed the project of concretising the road courtesy its Managing Director and the CCP Commissioner, one person who wears two hats but has one master- the Chief Minister, it should have ensured that the road was restored before the Sharada Mandir school reopened after its summer recess.
The situation on the road is there for all to see and for those who don’t live and come to Panjim, for all to read and follow through Herald’s reportage. One flank of the road is blocked, the other flank for incoming traffic is also the drop off point for children. All round the entrance of the school lies debris and several dug pits, which will soon be filled with rain water. The path from the school to the Miramar circle is undulating and lined with wooden support structures on holes in the ground.
In a months’ time these will be pools with mosquitoes an also death traps where children can fall. And while these dangers loom large, people in positions are playing games of one up-manship and ego massaging starting with the CCP Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues, who has planted a feather in his own cap claiming moral and legal victory over the Mayor by pushing the road concretisation work without so much as an FYI to the city fathers. He has banked on the fact the by-laws of functioning have not been drafted by the CCP, detailing protocols. It is this letter of print on which positions are established while the city and now its children suffer.
The Miramar-Dona Paula road project is the victory of one man but the defeat of one town and a disaster for the government and its agencies. Everyone has failed from the MLA of Panjim downwards. The traffic police for not blocking the road off completely from for two hours in the morning and the afternoon and dedicating a new hop on hop off point near the circle and use the good side of the road as a safe walk way, the Parent Teachers Association and the school itself which should have refused to open till the road was cleared and moved the courts, against the GSIDC for failing to honour its promise of finishing work before the school reopened and the government for not bringing key agencies together and giving them time bound deadlines with strict action for non compliance.
Expecting executive sensitivity as the catalyst for executive action is impractical. As with everything else the same Court which allowed the likes of the Sanjit Rodrigues led GSIDC to carry on with this adventure, should be moved to appraise the bench of what the fallout of its order to allow status quo on construction has led to. Those who gloat over winning mini battles of personal one up-manship should be made accountable to the city they govern.
The road being dug indefinitely is a death trap for children and parents not to speak of extreme inconvenience for the town.
Herald welcomes the order of the Human Rights Commission to summon the Chief Secretary and the GSIDC to explain why and how they have allowed the situation to be dangerous to the health and well being of children. We expect an order from the Court too for penal action against those who have forced this mess and closure of this road in two weeks. If the government does not drive, it has to be driven.
