The commercial capital, Margao is in chaos right from Clube Harmonia to the heart of the city, around the garden. Snarling traffic, open ditches, manholes constructed right in the centre of the road during peak hours, 4G cables being laid by Reliance, water pipelines being replaced, sidewalks dug up simultaneously and garbage strewn around every bylane of the MMC New Market are a common sight.
“We are behind schedule on our work, the municipal elections code of conduct doesn’t permit us to work during that one month and hence nothing could be done through October and then by the time we were allowed to commence work, it was December,” explains the Sewerage Corporation engineer whose gangs of labour are struggling to work in the midst of traffic along the Lohia Maidan junction.
“My question is why can’t all this work happen through the night. Why put barricades and dig in the day? Why leave huge dumps of mud in the middle of the street or broken pavers on the sidewalk? Is that how we carry out construction in our homes?,” questions an angry resident of Margao, Ivin Fernandes who lives besides Gaylin Restaurant. Ivin shows us how the PWD has dug that stretch of the road and left a huge pile of mud in the middle of her lane and the municipality neither overlooks this shoddy road digging nor supervises and corrects the mess, despite being the authority over the city limits.
Tanuja Bandekar who runs a little Christmas decoration store in Margao, explains to us how she loses out on customers because of the garbage dump for the entire market is next to her shop and the municipality fails to clear the area regularly and the place is infested with stray dogs.
“So many times, I have told them to keep a guard or two municipal workers there with multiple bins. The workers can keep it nicely and it will also prevent people from flinging the garbage. There are restaurants from the coastal belt flinging garbage there and the stench is terrible and even worse, the same space has a Sulabh toilet also,” she said.
Similarly Cristalina Pereira shows us her evening spot where she sits opposite Lily Garments and sells fruit. She shows us how she’s displaced, the entire two wheeler parking space has disappeared because of the debris from some road digging work and even worse, two broken barricades are also piled besides the debris, giving her no space to sit and sell her fruits.
“People’s families are down in December and I sit with extra fruits because people purchase for their large families. I have no space. Inside the market, our spaces are encroached upon plus the municipality allows these illegal fruit gaddas to setup business. How are we to operate?” questions Cristalina.
An 82-year old senior citizen from Malbhat struggles with his walking stick and gets off the pavement because it’s encroached with illegal generators from shops. On the road he negotiates a huge drilling machine and an open wet ditch with no barricades at all. He struggles to walk past the mess.
“Last week, one old man fell in the ditch in the evening because it was open and he received stitches on his arm. The municipality is the authority. They need to overlook all this. Margao functions like a banana republic. Anybody digs in any manner. One cable company cuts the road and cuts three other operator’s fiber optics, then in the name of repairs, they also dig. What is this nonsense?” asks Sujay Kamat from the Old Station Road area.
MMC Sanitation Officer, Viraj Arabekar has no answer and says he’s short staffed and that he cannot interfere in works of other agencies. He clarifies that the MMC does write to them but no action or fines are imposed.
