The Government of Goa, Directorate of Transport, Panjim, over the last weekend, invited public to grace the occasion of 26th National Road Safety Week, inaugural ceremony at Don Bosco College of Engineering, Fatorda, Margao with a slogan, ‘Safety is not just a slogan, it’s a way of life’.
The Minister for Transport and PWD, MGP’s Sudin Dhavalikar was the chief guest and former CM and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat was the guest of honour with others.
Look at this irony. While Road Safety concerns were being raised at Fatorda, citizens of Raia, a few kilometers from the Don Bosco College where the function was held, were agitating against the PWD department’s lethargy to look into the accident prone Raia-Ponda road which is often used by the PWD Minister who is also the transport minister.
Also, in the 20-odd years of the Margao MLA’s tenure of which five were as CM of the state, the roads of Margao have always been faulty. Often dug up initially for telephone cabling, underground electricity cabling and water pipelines, the Margao roads have accounted for many death and accidents.
The former CM, Manohar Parrikar is on record expressing inability to reign in the corruption levels in the PWD department and since in Goa the PWD portfolio is also held by the Transport Minister, he seems to be in the best position to co-ordinate road works. But the fact is, he and his departments have failed miserably, not just to maintain roads in Goa but also to curb malpractices by private busses and carrier trucks which have been responsible for mowing down many innocent road users.
Year after year we have celebrations for Road Safety Week and ministers, MLAs and VIPs come, give great flowery speeches and go. Nothing worthwhile has come out of any road safety week and Goans continue to suffer due to the pathetic conditions of roads coupled with corruption in transport departments.
When will this rot be stamped out? Now as a new trend, it would be proper to hold memorial services in honour of the victims of road mishaps during the Road Safety Week, than listen to hollow speeches of politicos who have presided over the ruin of Goa’s roads.
