Team Herald
VASCO: Tragedy struck the Borkar family on Monday night when 63-year-old Anita Borkar, who was fast asleep in her room, was crushed to death under a huge boulder which crashed into the house near Goa Shipyard, Vaddem-Vasco. Luckily the Anita’s son, who was sleeping in the same room, escaped unhurt.
The Vasco fire station officials informed that they received a call about the incident and a team of fire fighters rushed to the site.
“We noticed that a huge boulder had crashed into a residential house near GSL Vaddem, Vasco on Monday night. The body of a woman was trapped under the huge boulder, which was retrieved by the Vasco firemen with the help of MMC labourers. The residential house was totally damaged in the incident. The whole operation was completed in four-and-half hours,” SFO Dilip Bicholkar said.
The team of fire officials comprised of Francisco Mendes, Dilip Bicholkar, Bharat Shetye, G R Bhatdesai, Sachin Sawant, Devendra Kerkar, Manjunath Shetty, Tushar Bandodkar, Milind Naik, Vinay Vernekar, Prakash Kotagi, Meghanath Kankonkar and Ritesh Naik.
The locals claimed that the authorities have been neglecting their demand to construct a retaining wall to ensure the safety of the residents.
The residents expressed grief over the incident and informed that such incidents have occurred in the past with the most recent taking place in September last year.
The locals have demanded that a retaining wall be constructed immediately to avoid such life threatening incidents in future.
Another resident said he has been following up the issue of constructing the retaining wall but the PWD officials have directed him to approach the disaster management authority.
The local said, “As temporary measure an iron rod was placed to prevent any stones from coming down, but a retaining wall needs to be constructed to avoid such incidents. The authorities claim to be putting in efforts but no results are visible. What are we supposed to do? The authorities should take up this matter on a war footing to ensure people’s safety”.
MMC chairperson Nandadeep Raut informed media persons that he had requested the Deputy Collector in the past to construct a retaining wall. The retaining wall work was proposed but got stuck as it needed NOC of the land owner.
Raut urged the concerned authorities to construct the retaining wall and make alternate arrangements for victim’s family.
