Team Herald

VASCO: Three women, a man and a 4-year-old child of a migrant family suffered injuries in a freak accident on NH17-A in Sancoale on Friday morning.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 11 am when a woman proceeding towards Vasco from Cortalim in her Maruti Alto car lost control over her vehicle and rammed against migrant fish vendors who were selling fish alongside the road near St Jacinto Island. 

The victims are identified as Jaimala (20), Sumitra (35), Jaya (40) and Gouda (50). The name of the minor child was not available. The injured were shifted to Goa Medical College hospital at Bambolim. Police have registered the accident under M V Act and are investigating the same.  

Meanwhile, after the incident locals from Sancoale village raised serious concerns over the migrants selling fish alongside the road near St Jacinto Island. 

They said that since these migrants have been selling fish illegally along the roadsides, this stretch of road has become a death trap for motorists.

“In fact we had predicted that such incident might occur some or the other day despite of our objections these migrants have been selling fish alongside the road in Sancoale. We had also raised the issue before the gram sabha with the hope that the authorities concerned would remove the migrants who have erected their shanties alongside the road and have been selling fish, however no action was initiated. We therefore again urged the concerned authorities including the panchayat to act and make this road free of migrant menace,” said Narayan D Naik, a resident of Sancoale.

Surprisingly, few months ago, after Herald had highlighted the issue of mushrooming of illegal shanties near St Jacinto Island and migrants selling fish alongside the road posing risk of accidents, the shanties were cleared only to return in few weeks time.    

When contacted Sancoale Sarpanch Girish Pillai, he informed that he would soon take action to ensure that the area where migrants have erected their shanties illegally would be cleared. He said that panchayat had already issued warnings to the migrants but would now remove the shanties soon after seeking police protection to avoid any law and order problems.