Team Herald
PANJIM: The Public Works Department (PWD) and Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) South Goa have been given a clean chit by the Goa Human Rights Commission (GHRC) in an accident case that saw a bike rider killed at Nuvem.
The GHRC had taken suo motu cognisance of the fatal accident that occurred in July wherein locals alleged that the PWD had not taken required safety precautions for motorists and the officials of the concerned authorities claimed that the victim proceeded by ignoring instructions.
Since, this Commission was of the opinion that prima facie there was violation of human rights, it took cognisance of the news item (Herald) and issued notices to the principal Chief Engineer, PWD, Head Quarters, and to the DCF, South Goa to enquire into the matter and submit report.
In its reports, DCF stated that they had only provided the necessary assistance in identification of the trees for cutting or trimming and that the execution of tree felling and trimming and management of traffic was looked after by other departments like PWD and Traffic Department.
The reply of the Executive Engineer, PWD XIV (NH) revealed that all the required formalities were done before cutting or trimming of the trees along the road side NH 66 from Verna to Cuncolim. “When the alleged incident occurred, the traffic cell personnel were present at the spot for guiding and regulating the road users and at the time of incident the traffic was totally blocked by traffic police in both directions of the traffic flow resulting in long queue of vehicles. The deceased rider, by breaking all the traffic rules suddenly entered the danger area without any notice and the trunk of the tree fell on him causing serious injuries,” the report of Executive Engineer stated.
In view of the above replies, the Commission Chairperson Justice U V Bakre and Member Desmond D’Costa opined that the incident occurred due to the fault of the deceased rider and no violation of human rights is committed by the respondents.
