PONDA: Finally after loads of complaints against pollution of Ragada river water, the joint inspection of the polluted river at Sacorda took place on Tuesday. The Deputy Collector Akshay Potekar and officials of various departments, including Goa State Pollution Control Board, Health Services, PWD and Irrigation department collected samples of water at four places, including raw water at the point where villagers were claiming there was pollution. Water samples at the treatment plant, and samples of tap water supplied to villagers were also taken.
The lab test report is expected to come in next week. However villager said they are unhappy that spot inspection was not done and instead the inspection and sample taking was done after a delay of so many days. They also demanded an FIR against the person/s responsible for the river pollution.
Villager, Bipin Naik said, “Villagers have been demanding spot inspection since February 16. The people are feeling cheated due to the tremendous delay in inspection of Ragada River pollution. The inspection has been held after a long delay after issuing notices to all and also alerting people involved in pollution is aimed at presenting a clean picture.” It will not be a surprise if the reports of pollution come negative and favorable, which will only satisfy officials and the polluter.
Naik stated that still there are six illegal fishery pits filled with polluted water, which may find their way into the river, through underground seepage or they may overflow into the river during heavy monsoon. Therefore there is need for the Panchayat to take legal action by filing a police complaint. Further, he said villagers are demanding to install better filters and a better treatment plant on the river to solve their problems and supply them clean water.
Local panchayat member Mahadev Shetkar also demanded that the authorities should take legal action against those responsible for pollution of the river. He said there is a ban on cat fish production but they were being bred in the pits.
