All is not well in Assolna

There’s a common saying in Assolna - ‘“Oslem Naam”- that means, ‘nothing like this’. However, Assolna does shares problem similar to other villages, such as garbage management, market facilities, pollution control, and infrastructure. JULIO D’SILVA takes an overview of how the Salcete-based scenic village can improve

Published on:

06 Nov 2019, 12:35 am

The sleepy village of Assolna that has a hectic life only around the market place and a very cosy and relaxing atmosphere at the restaurants along the banks of River Sal, which forms one boundary of the village, appears to have missed the bus for changing its lifestyle.

The main problem facing the village is the extremely congested market place that features at practically every gram sabha but till date has found no solution.

Former sarpanch of Assolna Mario D’Souza pointed out that it was once proposed to shift the market near the football ground. He however lamented that the authorities slept over that proposal and that now that land is no longer available for them to use. He added that it was an opportunity lost to improve the village.

The panchayat now plans to construct a new panchayat ghar and convert the existing panchayat ghar into an improved market where all the fish vendors can be accommodated. Incidentally, Assolna is famous for the rock and river fish available there and people from all over Salcete come to purchase this fresh water fish.

Incidentally, at present, only three of the fish vendors in Assolna market are originally from the village while the other vendors hail from nearby Betul who come to Assolna to sell their fish.

The panchayat’s plans to construct a new panchayat ghar has also run into trouble as nobody applied for the job though it was tendered twice at a cost of around Rs. 1 crore and the newly-inducted minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues who is the local MLA has promised to get the panchayat ghar constructed.

The congested market also causes a problem for garbage management and very often the shopkeepers are found to dump their garbage behind the shops or in the nearby drain and set it on fire and the panchayat has not been able to do anything to control this menace.

Revlin Fereira a member of the panchayat lamented that even though the panchayat is collecting garbage from households people are not co-operating and hence plastic is found strewn all over the village.

“The shopkeepers are also known to dump their garbage by side of their shops thus dirtying the whole market,” he said.

If the Assolna market is famous for its fresh water fish the restaurants along the banks of river Sal at what is now called Passgem but was earlier called Tariwado attract good crowd from even other talukas and they are quite crowded during the weekends.

The restaurants are well known for the seafood they served and specially the rock crabs that are a delicacy and fished from the adjacent River Sal. While the restaurants do roaring business haphazard parking is proving to be a problem and hindrance for the late comers to visit the restaurants.

Locals also complain that many of the restaurant owners dump their waste in the river as they do not have proper system to deal with the garbage generated in the restaurants. Sarpanch Xavier Almeida admitted to having received such complaints.

“However, till date we have not found any of the restaurant owners dumping waste in the river,” he said while admitting that two restaurants that were releasing their sewage directly in the river were fined recently.

“We have now issued notices to the restaurant owners and even private house owners against releasing their sewerage or waste water directly in the river and shall implement this very stringently shortly,” he said.