Team Herald
PORVORIM: PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar promised the House that the work to fill all the potholes on the roads would be completed before the upcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival. The government also intends to purchase Jetpatcher machines to fill the potholes in future.
Pauskar said that the estimate to repair the roads, especially the filling up of the potholes has been prepared for all the 12 talukas. He added that the work is expected to begin soon after receiving the finance department’s approval.
“Before Chaturthi, the roads will be repaired,” he said responding to the concerns raised by the legislators, from both the ruling and opposition benches, regarding the poor road conditions.
He also stated that the road contractors will be held accountable in the near future, if the standard works are not done and if they fail to undertake the maintenance.
Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco demanded that the government immediately takes up the work to fill the potholes, which are turning out to be death traps. “Innocent people are losing their lives because of potholes. It is something that we can avoid by repairing the roads,” he said.
Even BJP MLA Clafasio Dias pointed out that his friend met with an accident on Monday late evening after he lost balance being caught in a pothole. “My request to the government is to ensure that some temporary relief is given to people during the monsoon period,” he said.
Senior Congress MLA Pratapsingh Rane questioned why the govt failed to make use of the Jetpatcher machine to fill the potholes, which was purchased by the govt a decade back. He demanded that the govt buys more Jetpacher machines as they help in immediately filling up potholes.
Responding to this, CM Pramod Sawant said that the existing machine is not in a working condition since it was not used for a long time and that the govt will purchase a new machine.
