TEAM HERALD
CALANGUTE: The Calangute Village Panchayat has decided to file an FIR against sewerage contractors of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) due to the inordinate delay in restoration of roads after carrying out digging works in Calangute.
The move comes in the wake of JICA’s failure in adhering to its completion schedule given to the local body. JICA project engineer had given a written assurance that the digging work on the Gaura waddo road or Holiday Street as it is popularly called, would be completed by May 12. Despite the assurance of the project engineer, the digging work on the Holiday Street road is still underway and may not be completed before the onset of monsoon.
Speaking to Herald, Panch Joseph Sequeira said, “The sewerage digging works by JICA is not being monitored by the PWD or any other government body and the work today is posing a threat to the Calangute villagers. The haphazard works would be further exposed during the onset of monsoon and it could even lead to a tragedy of sorts in the village. Everyone including the Calangute MLA has been boasting about the sewerage works but who is monitoring the works? Has the Calangute MLA initiated steps to avoid the haphazard works by JICA contractors? We had requested the contractor to carry out individual digging and filling it again with proper curing, etc, before they could begin the works, but nothing of that sort is happening. What we have been seeing is haphazard works which would be exposed during the monsoons.”
“The JICA executive engineer had given us a letter assuring completion of all digging works on the Gaura waddo (Holiday Street) by May 12, but surprisingly the digging of roads is still going on to lay the chambers, etc. The hoteliers in the areas have suffered greatly due to the ongoing works. We will be filing an FIR against the JICA contractors for the inordinate delay in completing the digging works after adopting a resolution in the panchayat body meeting” added Sequeira.
The JICA project, Executive Engineer, S P Jadhav vide his April 7, letter has categorically stated that the works would commence from April 10 and would be completed on May 12, including restoration of road with full grout as indicated in the chart. The letter also requested the Calangute Panchayat to convince the hotel owners to extend their co-operation for completing the works. The digging works on the Holiday Street is still going on and there is no possibility of completing the works before the onset of monsoon.
