CHRISTANAND PEDNEKAR
QUEPEM: The locals of Ambe, Peri, Devanamol, Dukorkan and Bhatwada in Sanvordem Panchayat jurisdiction are suffering due to no proper bus service, which is only available twice a day, early morning and evening after 6.
Surprisingly, these villages are hardly 4 to 5 kilometres away from Sanvordem and Curchorem markets.
For the last two years, the villagers have been travelling to Kudchade or Sanvordem Bazaars in their own or private vehicles. Now, the locals of surrounding villagers have urged local MLA Deepak Pauskar to take notice of this issue and requested to take immediate action.
Rishita Shirodkar, a local woman, said that for the last two years, due to COVID-19 pandemic situation, the private bus service in the village has been stopped, and now the situation is that there are only two buses plying at present, one at six in the morning from Kale Panchayat area and other at 8 o’clock.
“The last bus service from our village to Sanvordem or Kudchade is available at 7 am and night at 8 and in between, afternoon or evening, there are no private buses available but only two Kadamba buses at 6.30 am and the other at 8 pm to return in the evening,” she claimed.
Saish Gaokar, a local, said that this situation has persisted for the last two years when the private bus operators stopped plying during the pandemic period.
Meena Madwal, a local woman, said that when the mining business was running smoothly, there were private buses as well as mining companies with transport and bus services, but with the mining business stalled, we have to struggle to claim our livelihood and other important things of day to day life.
Nikita Gaonkar, a student said that the situation which had arisen in the last two years was due to COVID-19 pandemic and hence the private bus services were stopped but then it did not restart with the schools and colleges reopening now.
“We have to get out of the house early in the morning and have to call our father or relatives as there is no bus services in the afternoon or evening when we want to return home,” said Nikita.
“First of all, there is a problem of mobile network connectivity in our village and now that the schools and colleges have reopened, it is the duty of the administration as well as the local people’s representatives to provide bus services too,” claimed Nikita.
