PRATIK PARAB
As the rain began to fall, the problems and inconveniences of Madgavkaars also began to show. Just as the MMC began to tender its pre-monsoon drain desilting work, cases of drain collapse and water logging have surfaced in some places of the town. The Chief Officer and his team have been going around inspecting the problems but the question still remains – what will the MMC do after the onset of the actual monsoons?
The council is being criticized by people for its failure on various fronts, primarily on pre-monsoon readiness. They finally decided to tender the desilting work but it has come at a time when the rain is bucketing down.
With just two days of rain, the roads of Margao were flooded. Overflowing drains were seen near Aquem, Pajifond, Arlem, Housing Board and other areas. As an annual feature, the Comba subway was submerged in neck deep water.
Also, due to improper collection of garbage and lack of bins, people have been dumping garbage in the open. The garbage has found its way into drains and is blocking them completely, causing them to overflow.
Parents of school children and other locals were irked after a newly constructed drain in Gogol crashed due to last week’s downpour. Thousands of people are being inconvenienced daily due to the shabby work of the contractor.
The road from Chowgule College which leads to the Housing Board is used by over thousands of people daily. Parents dropping their wards to school travel on this road to the various institutions in the area. However, the road leading to the school has been in a poor motorable condition for nearly four years now.
Enlargement of the drain channel on this road was recently taken up by the MMC through a contractor who took several days to finish this work, costing Rs 60,000. One fine day when an MMC garbage truck attempted to cross over this drain, the construction gave way and caved in, causing two wheels of the truck to get stuck in. This incident occured about 8 or 10 days after the construction of the drain. “This road has inconvenienced several people for days. I have personally tried to keep the problems at bay but efforts have been in vain,” said Raju Shirodkar.
“The council was probably under the impression that there would not be a monsoon season this year and thus preferred to keep desilting of drains off its schedule,” said a sarcastic Savio Coutinho from the Shadow Council.
The Shadow council also proposed an alternative wherein they said that over 90 workers have been employed by the MMC for door to door collection, out of which hardly 20 report/work during both sessions. These workers could be used to clean up wherever clogging occurs, instead of wasting public funds.
Chief Officer, Yashwant Tawde and the Municipal Engineer were, meanwhile, found on the field on Tuesday checking the complaints of water logging. “There were some objection raised by the councilors in the past regarding the work of desiliting. Hence it was held up,” the Engineer said, adding, “We are inspecting the present condition of the drains along with the councilors. Later, if need be, we will tender this work and giver work orders.”
