BASURI DESAI
basuri@herald-goa.com
Wards number 17, 18 and 19 of the Corporation of the City of Panjim share common issues which have been existing for decades. This portion of the state’s capital in Bhatlem village has been neglected by the government and elected ward members could not do enough to resolve the issues.
“The main issue in this village is of garbage, which is in a bad shape due to the negligence and improper/inconsistent collection. The entire village which is divided into three wards has this common problem as garbage is being dumped at the side of the road,” said Srikant Parab, a local resident.
At present, garbage collection is done once a day at 3pm but garbage is being dumped all over by the road side throughout the day. One of the locals informed that people dump garbage in the morning and in the evening while collection is done in the afternoon.
“Throughout the day, the garbage remains at the site. The garbage dumped in the morning is being picked up in the afternoon and the garbage dumped in the evening is being picked up the next afternoon. This creates a nuisance in the locality,” Sameer Shaikh, another local said.
Garbage and cleanliness are the two biggest among a host of issues that plague this village. Another issue that does worry locals is that of proper sanitation. The village houses a lot of migrants who come here due to cheap rent and availability. But in the process, sanitation in the village suffers.
The people renting small rooms in the village use open spaces and fields in the village to answer nature’s call.
The entire village is suffering due to poor hygiene. Roads are littered with garbage while the stalls, shops and other residential houses have encroached on the road, causing a space crunch for vehicles are well. All of this paints a really ugly picture.
The village of Bhatlem is situated at the foothills of the Altinho hill. There is a need of a proper drainage system as well. Locals say that new drains are needed to be constructed. However, the fact still remains that there has been no flooding in the past due to the presence of fields for water to pass and drain out in the Mandovi River.
However, Ratnakar Fatarpekar, sitting ward member of ward 18 said that he constructed quite a few drains and the retaining wall in his ward during his last tenure. He also took credit for sewage connections and improving the water supply pipeline.
Prajot Vaingankar, who represented ward 17 (now 16 due to delimitation) said that he did some development work like construction of footpaths and improving electricity and water supply. He also said that some work wasn’t able to be completed due to the financial constraints of the CCP.
Additionally, some portion of Bhatlem land belongs to ‘bhatkars’ (landlord) and there are issues between ‘bhatkars’ and ‘mundkars’ and this has caused some amount of development to take a back seat.
Some locals have complained that there is not enough cultivable field space in the village as water is logged in these fields all 12 months of the year due to the absence of proper nullahs.
“If a nullah from the village is constructed and connected to the creek at Four Pillars, then the fields can be used for farming and other agricultural activity,” Fatarpekar said.
