Team Herald

PANJIM: In a shameful act, some unknown miscreants have damaged a statue installed along the Porvorim highway.

Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC), the executing agency, had installed nine different unique types of statues depicting Goan culture costing Rs 70,000 each in between the Panjim-Mapusa highway and the new service road.

As Herald visited the spot, it was revealed that a statue made of glass fibre was completely damaged by unknown miscreants. Also it was seen that the artefact of a man standing was damaged from the leg, even of the hand was completely separated and thrown away 5 metres from the site.

As Herald spoke to some of the locals, who come for an evening walk along the stretch they said some people sit on the roadside late night and consume alcohol every day then later damage these statues.

“It is an everyday scene here. Every night a group of young boys sit along the stretch and consume alcohol and then later once they are drunk they do all such type activities of destruction. There have been many instances,” said Kunjar, a local resident of Porvorim.

However, this is not the first incident or attack on the artefact. Some months ago, another artefact of a fisherman with basket along the same stretch had been ravaged and the right hand of the fisherman was damaged and the basket was missing.

“If you come here late night, you will see groups of people consuming alcohol and the empty bottles are just thrown away in between the service road and the highway where these statues have been installed. The police station is just nearby and no action is taken on such people who destroy public property,” said a senior citizen 

Meanwhile, some people have said that the government is wasting public money on such costly statues instead of spending it on necessary infra projects.

“Why is the government wasting money on such statues, they should spend this money on projects which are needed for the people,” asked a local.