Newly-appointed PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar announced in the Assembly that potholed roads, if any, in the State would be repaired before the Ganesh festivities begin. The minister’s statement was made after he came in for sharp criticism from the opposition as well as the ruling benches in the House. Pauskar blamed the bad state of Goa’s roads on the ongoing infrastructure works in Goa and said that PWD could not be solely blamed for the bumpy ride. “In each of the 12 talukas the works division have identified the bad stretches and prepared an estimate and before Ganesh Chaturthi all the potholes will be repaired. We will get good roads soon,” he said.
While the minister said this, on the other hand, another minister in the Dr Pramod Sawant cabinet, Michael Lobo said that FIRs should be filed against engineers in case of accidents due to potholes. While the fact cannot be denied that the roads throughout Goa are in bad shape, can only Pauskar be blamed? Pauskar took over in March when the election Code of Conduct was in force. That meant he could not take up works before the monsoon. Besides, former PWD Minister Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar, who has suddenly found his voice in the Assembly, has been at the helm of the ministry for nearly over a decade since 2001. Now, who should be blamed?
It’s not only the ministers, but PWD officials and contractors are equally responsible for the bad roads as it is their responsibility to get the roads repaired in time. People are up in the arms as roads built just months before monsoon, spending crores of rupees, are washed off with the first rain itself. It’s an open secret that contractors have to pay hefty commissions – right from tendering to the disbursement of his final bill.
This reminds one of the Akshay Kumar-starrer Khatta-Meetha, which actually described the functioning and the life of a contractor. The film shows how contractors, who pays commissions get their work orders and final payments, while those who not do pay, do get anything – simple. In a bid to pay commission and get contracts, the contractors compromise on quality of work, the movie shows. Who then is to be held responsible for the bad roads in Goa, Dhavalikar or Pauskar, for the sub-standard works carried out on internal roads? Or the PWD officials and contractors?
As per the traffic cell of Goa Police, potholes are one of the major reasons for the fatal accidents. Till today we haven’t read of any compensation paid to victims in Goa for road accidents. It is common knowledge that a large number of people have died in such accidents and authorities, who were supposed to maintain the roads, were not doing their duty properly. The Supreme Court last year expressed concern over 14,926 people being killed in road accidents due to potholes in the last five years and termed it ‘unacceptable’. A bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur said the large number of deaths caused due to potholes across the country was ‘probably more than those killed on border or by the terrorists’. Terming the situation frightening, the top court had asked the Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety to look into the matter. It had also suggested compensation for all those who lose their lives in such accidents.
Agreed, Goa is going for a transformation in terms of development of national highways and bridges but what about the internal roads? Also, why can’t the government direct the contractors on national highways to repair these at the earliest and if they not, penalise them? This only goes to show that nobody wants to accept the blame nor blame anyone else but only mint money at the cost of people’s lives.
