MARCOS GONSALVES
marcos@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: While the influx of a constantly growing migrant workforce into Goa, and its accompanying complications, advantages and conflicts, has been a much-discussed issue across the State for several years now, the small village panchayat of Nagoa has come up with the innovative idea of using technology to keep track of its migrant population.
The newly-constituted panchayat body has unitedly worked out a way to take control of the issue with a migrant worker database, and a specially-designed app to keep an up-to-date digital record of the same.
Sarpanch Gabrial Fernandes told Herald that a migrant identity card has been developed, wherein the details of the individual, besides the details of the house owner who has rented out his premises
to the migrant, will
be recorded.
It has been revealed that at the moment, out of the nearly ten thousand people, living in around 600 houses in Nagoa, over six thousand are migrants. The reason for this demographic is the proximity to the neighbouring industrial estate areas.
“This new initiative, on which the panchayat was working on for the last few years, will be able to keep accountability of the migrants entering and living
in Nagoa village,” said
the Sarpanch.
The Panchayat body is of the strong opinion that due to the floating population, the village is facing a tough time to tackle issues such as garbage collection and the security of the village. While the panchayat has decided to take the initiative in resolving its own problems without depending on the State government, it remains to be seen if only blue-collared workers would be asked to register with the database and carry migrant cards, or if the scheme would extend to migrant workers employed in high-paying corporate jobs as well.
The man behind the idea, Anzil Godinho, told Herald that the rampant increase in the migrant population has put extra pressure on the limited resources of the village.
“It was followed by the garbage menace, where the streets of the village were becoming increasingly dirtier. However, in order to resolve the issue by taking control of the bigger picture, we decided to keep track of the migrant population in the village,” he added.
He explained that a separate registration database will be maintained for each ward, wherein the owner of the household providing accommodation to the migrant workers will be asked to fill the form with all the details, including their Aadhar card numbers and native village addresses.
These details will be registered with the panchayat, which will be followed by issuing individual cards to
the migrants.
“Yes, the panchayat will be very strict while implementing this scheme. The panchayat will also collect Rs 360 annually from the migrant, a fee towards the collection of garbage and providing other facilities,” said Godinho.
He further informed that no facilities will be provided if the house owner fails to provide all the details of the migrant citizen. Random checking will be done at the panchayat level and enough time will be given to do the registration, if not done. The Nagoa panchayat has also set an example to many others in initiating Swach Nagoa, Surakshit Nagoa, besides Atmanirbhar and Swayampurna Nagoa.
