SANGUEM: Barely four days before the code of conduct would come into effect, the foundation stone to construct a road to the Kazugotto ward of Kavrem village was laid. Villagers have been demanding this for over 10 years without any response.
The cries of the largely tribal inhabitants of this village fell on deaf ears for the last more than a decade. The road construction has been tendered for a whopping Rs. 5.71 crore which could have been constructed for a far lower cost if it was done 10 years back.
In the absence of the road, the villagers had to walk quite a distance to the nearby village to board a bus. Students and officegoers had to suffer this ordeal every day while the senior citizens were not spared whenever they had to go out.
In January this year, Kazugotto hit the headlines as an elderly man lost his life to a cardiac failure only because the 108 ambulance had no access to the village when it was summoned to take him to the hospital.
The villagers did their best to carry the ailing person to the ambulance, but by the time they reached it, the old man breathed his last.
In October 2023, the lone culvert that connected the residential area of the village to the road was washed away leaving the students and working class stranded in their houses.
It was only when temporary pipes were laid that the stranded villagers could cross the culvert to move out of their houses.
One reason for the long delay in constructing this road was the reluctance of landowners to give their NOC without being compensated for their land loss as the road had to pass through private land.
Credit for the road goes to the tenacious efforts of two locals Pradeep and Narayan Gaonkar, who tirelessly pursued the matter.
“The owner of the land from where the road commences was not willing to give his NOC until he was compensated for the land,” said Narayan Gaonkar.
