TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CALANGUTE: The developmental works continued on Christmas Day in Calangute and surrounding areas, gifting a dusty Christmas for the villagers.
The Catholic community was upset with the works as they were not able to either walk or drive home after attending mass in the churches as work continued despite assurances of Calangute MLA Michael Lobo.
“For two months, we have been hard hit due to dust pollution and we accepted it as it was meant for the betterment of the village and villagers; however, developmental work and dust on Christmas Day were never expected, especially when we have a Catholic representative. It means music the festival holds more importance for our MLA than the Christmas festival. Where are we heading with such developments,” asked a local resident who could not even walk home due to the ongoing work on St Joseph’s School road.
When MLA Lobo was contacted and questioned over his assurance that no work would be carried out on Christmas Day, Lobo had no explanation to offer but said, “I will stop the work immediately.”
However despite Lobo’s assurance, the work on the road continued bringing more misery to the locals due to dust pollution while the guests visited their houses.
Joseph Sequeira said the last minute developments in the village caused considerable inconvenience to the villagers.
“All roads were crying for repairs, which the panchayat took up and repaired on the eve of Christmas. Doing road works on Christmas Day by inconveniencing the Catholics is haphazard development by the Calangute MLA. By putting the machinery and doubling up with opening of the road within a day on account of music festival in Candolim speaks volumes of the Calangute MLA and people also will realize who is working for the benefit of the locals. Christmas Day is not the day to inconvenience our villagers at the cost of the music festival,” said Sequeira.
