Santosh Naik, Ponda
santosh@herald-goa.com
All know that Ponda is Temple Town but the main road is become an eyesore due to dumping of scrap vehicles. The several-decade-old scrap vehicles found in major accidents, including trucks are lying in rust, that creates horror and unpleasant scene at Farmagudi roadside but despite the spot being a tourist attraction, the scrap vehicles greets the visitors at this place. Locals are demanding to clean the area.
Farmagudi is a well known tourist spot located at the centre of Ponda Taluka on the Ponda-Panjim NH. The beautiful Shivaji Fort and Ganesh Temple located by the side of National Highway at Farmagudi attracts several tourists. Besides, in the surrounding areas at Farmagudi there is a half size statue of former Chief Minister Bhahusaheb Bandodkar. Beside this it is an educational hub with GEC, ITI, PES College, Pharmacy College and GVM’s College where thousands of students get education.
The tourists pass from this Farmagudi road stretch to the famous tourist spots like Shantadurga, Nagesh, Mahalaxmi, Mahalsa and Mangueshi from this highway but before they can visit these beautiful temples, the scrap vehicles greet them.
Umesh Naik at Farmagudi said these vehicles o be cleared from the roadside. The government is boasting of Swacch Bharat, makes appeals to keep our surroundings clean and so it should take step to remove this scrap garbage of vehicles from the place so that Farmagudi’s beautiful road will greet the visitors instead of scrap vehicles.
When asked a traffic official said “We have no problem to shift this scrap vehicles involved in accidents but we have no space owned by us to dump them.’s Some accidents vehicles are involved in court matter. Further if local bodies like Municipality or Panchayat provide us space we can shift them to that place. It is in Government hand to take the decision on this issue.”
