A village in Barcem is totally cut off from the outside world

VIJAY DESSAI

CUNCOLIM: A ‘revenge trench’ dug across the only mud road connecting them to the outside world has infuriated the Dhangars of Wargati Mol in Quepem’s Barcem Panchayat area. With all modes of transportation cut off, as a result, the helpless villagers have been suffering greatly over the past four days, even being forced to make human stretchers to ferry sick people to the nearest healthcare facility.

Young children too, who usually walk 1.5 kms to reach school in unsafe conditions amid driving rain. 

They have had to give their classes a miss, and daily wage labourers have had to go without any of the income that is crucial in keeping their hearths burning.

It all began four days ago, when farmers of another community, furious that cattle belonging to the Dhangar families had allegedly wrecked their paddy fields, dug a trench across the mud road leading to Wargati Mol, which, incidentally, is the birthplace of freedom fighter Kondo Yamkar. The matter reached the local police, who summoned both sides and urged them to settle the matter amicably.

However, despite the police ordering the farmers to restore the road, the trench remained there. If that wasn’t enough, the secretary of the Barcem Village Panchayat went on to issue a show-cause notice to the Dhangars over a complaint of crop damage by the farmers. “The panchayat appears to be more interested in buffaloes than in human beings as no attention has been paid to our plight after our only access was cut off,” a despondent villager said.

Some children of the village in a video message to CM Dr Pramod Sawant said, “Dear chief minister, please give us a road so that we can reach school on time. We want to learn, but there is no way for us to travel to school.”

Frustrated with the inaction of the authorities, the villagers took it upon themselves to remedy the situation on Wednesday by filling the trench with mud and rubble.

“What is the point of my husband fighting for the liberation of Goa?” asked 95-year-old Gangi Yamkar, Kondo’s wife. “I am old and sick, and can neither walk nor sit on a motorbike, so how can I go to a doctor if not by an ambulance?”

Her irate son, Bomo, said the village’s 150-odd people would boycott the fast-approaching panchayat elections. “If democracy does not bear fruit, what is the use of voting at the panchayat elections?” he said.