PANJIM: There was hectic activity on Panjim’s pothholed roads, dug-up roads and Smart City road over the weekend. The Smart City contractors were running helter-skelter, trying to spruce up the city before the High Court judges were to visit the Smart City work sites on Monday. Many citizens were shocked to see the efficiency with which the Smart City contractor was trying to save face, fight dust pollution and tar some dug-up roads.
The 18th June Road was sprayed with tanker water on Saturday to clean up the accumulated dust which was a fallout of the digging at selected spots. On Sunday, the road between Sushila Building and the old Education Department building was tarred, also a road between the Govinda building and the Woodland showroom, near Hotel Fidalgo was tarred. Both these roads were closed for weeks, but were made usable within a day.
On Monday, there was hectic road cleaning activity, a few hours before High Court Judges inspected the works. The St Inez junction up to St Inez Cemetery dug-up road was sprayed with water to control dust pollution. Also the potholes on the Dr Atmaram Borkar road were patched up and three tankers were deployed to water the road and about 10 labourers were using brooms and spades to clear the thick coat of dust which citizens had to put up with for weeks.
On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, the Cunha Rivara road, near Hindu Pharmacy which is under construction was watered as also the roads near Menezes Braganza hall and Varsha book stall. The under-construction road near Caculo Mall and the already constructed Smart City road at Campal were watered just before the visit of the judges, on Monday evening.
Reacting to this hogwash, Panjim resident Armando Gonsalves said, “This is absolutely ridiculous. They are taking the people for granted. People are scared to talk because of this monolithic government. I welcome the judges visiting the sites.” What is happening to our Democracy? he questioned.
Panjim resident Girish Mahale said, “I have already told Justice Mahesh Sonak and Justice Valmiki SA Menezes that they are washing and watering the roads now. Earlier, we had complained to the Smart City engineers and also the IPSCDL Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (NEO) Sanjit Rodrigues, but our complaints fell on deaf ears. I also told that the workmanship is poor and that they don’t care for the people.”
Manish Shah, a teacher from St Inez-Panjim, said, “I feel inconvenient to walk in the city. There is no proper planning. Now they are more alert and doing their best before the judges came for inspection.”
“After fooling Panjimites for the last almost four years in the name of making the city ‘smart’, this is an attempt by the Smart City officials to ‘smartly fool’ the court today. But both the Judges are Panjimites and regular visitors to the city. These one-day changes will not go unnoticed from the eyes of the court, which is the last hope for the Panjimites for relief,” Adv Vishnu Naik, a resident of St Inez said.
