19 yrs ago, a ‘road’ was named after this freedom fighter in Sanguem, but there’s no road still

ALFRED FERNANDES 

SANGUEM:  In 2003, the Goa government decided to honour late freedom fighter Ramkrishna Dadabhat by naming a road in his village Dabal in Sanguem, after him. While they had erected a stone structure bearing a plaque that reads ‘Ramkrishna Dadabhat Marg’ around one kilometre from the unsung hero’s home, the road in question still remains non-existent because the government never got down to building it.  

Even today, 19 years after the plaque was unveiled by then BJP MLA Vinay Tendulkar, if one looks for Ramkrishna Dadabhat Marg, they will only find a narrow dirt pathway. 

The pathway which is surrounded by undergrowth, leads to the freedom fighter’s rundown home in a remote part of Shemel Dabal village.  

Ramkrishna Dadabhat, who was killed by policemen on May 30, 1957, at Calem village remains a source of pride and inspiration for the youth of Sanguem.   

 “We do not understand why the government would make a show of naming the road after our freedom fighter and building a name-plate, if they had no intention of constructing this road,” said Uday Dessai, one of the local youth who got together on August 15 to garland the plaque as a tribute to the martyr. The group then proceeded down the narrow pathway to the house Dadabhat had constructed during the Portuguese rule, where his family still lives.  

The late freedom fighter’s nephew Manoj Bhat told Herald that the family faces a lot of difficulties due to the lack of a motorable road to their home. “It is very hard to negotiate the one-kilometre stretch by foot or two-wheeler, especially during the monsoon when it gets slushy and overgrown. If there is a medical emergency, I doubt we can bring a four-wheeler or ambulance down the pathway,” said Bhat. 

Another villager Pratap Dessai said he had raised the issue of the construction of a motorable road to Dadabhat’s house at panchayat meetings several times, but did not get any response. “This being the 75th year of India’s Independence and celebrated in a grand manner, we appeal to the authorities to construct the road at the earliest,” he said.