PONDA: Right to life includes right to light. But a family in Sancorda panchayat has been deprived of this basic right by the forest officials posted at the Mollem office, merely because the power lines were passing through forest area for a distance.
After knocking on the doors of various officials including the local MLA, the power minister and the chief minister, the affected Girodkar family has now decided to stage a dharna at Azad Maidan in Panjim on December 19, to protest the injustice done to them by the Mollem forest officials.
It is instructive that the family received power connection just before this year’s Ganesh festivities and that too after a long struggle. The family was overjoyed to receive power connection fifty years after electricity reached the State. However, their joy was short lived, as within a month the Mollem Forest Department disconnected their power supply on the eve of Diwali on ground that the electric lines were passing through forest area for a distance.
The 13-member Girodkar family has five students studying in eighty, tenth, eleventh, twelfth and ITI and it is an understatement that these students have been facing severe difficulties without power.
Besides, after the power connection was released to them, Vasanth Girodkar, who is running a dairy business, had purchased four Jersey cows to increase his business. Incidentally, these bovines need a cool environment and since the time power was cut off, the family has become helpless to provide them one. Similarly, the machinery bought for milking the cows have also been rendered useless without electricity.
On Sunday, assisted by RTI activist Rajan Ghate, the Girodkar family members addressed the media on the alleged harassment meted out to them by the forest department. The decision to stage a dharna was disclosed during the interaction with the media. RTI activist Rajan Ghate said that he too would sit in dharna along with the Girodkar family members.
According to the Girodkar, there are several houses in their village that have been provided electricity connection through forest area, but only they were targeted for disconnection by the forest department.
They further alleged that the forest officials had even falsely framed Vasanth Girodkar of cutting 40 forest trees, recently. Incidentally, Vasant Girodkar has become handicapped after an accident two years ago.
Showing his crippled right hand and immobile fingers to the media, Vasant Girodkar wondered whether a handicapped person is capable of cutting 40 trees.
The family has demanded that the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, who also holds the forest portfolio, to address their plight.
