Karsten Miranda
Among the many ‘development’ items on the priority menu for Navelim constituency, the demand for the Navelim primary health centre (PHC) was the highest and the people can breathe a sigh of relief that the same is expected to be completed soon.
On Thursday evening, deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister Francisco D’souza along with Navelim MLA Avertano Furtado, Velim MLA Benjamin Silva and prominent residents of Navelim inspected the under construction 10-bedded PHC site. Officials from the health department and Navelim panchayat were also present.
It may be recalled that the foundation stone had been laid on May 20 and while expressing satisfaction with the pace of the work so far, D’souza said he expects the hospital to be ready by August 2016.
As per D’souza’s assessment, 25 percent of the work was ready and it had reached the plinth level and he reasoned that it was as per the schedule despite the rains which usually delays such kind of projects. He added that the project could be inaugurated as early as May 2016.
Furtado praised the work of the contractor for using the period of dry spells efficiently and for not stopping during the rains. He expressed hope that at this rate the health centre would be operational soon and thus fulfilling one of the key demands of the public.
This matter was taken up during the former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s visit to the constituency on November 10, 2012 after he had been apprised by Furtado and others as to why Navelim was the perfect location in terms of convenience to the large population and why the people needed a PHC.
Village residents had in the past often demanded delinking them from the Curtorim Primary Health Centre by setting up a full-fledged health centre at Navelim. This demand echoed at the village gram sabhas in the past as locals had complained that there were a lot of administrative related purposes like getting various NOCs and certificates from the health centre. There was a sub health centre at Navelim earlier but people had stated that it was not enough to cater to their needs and the matter had been pursued by the MLA as well.
Currently the 12-bed Curtorim Primary Health Centre caters to around a lakh population spread across 11 villages in Salcete- right from Curtorim to Sao Jose de Areal in the east and Navelim and Dramapur-Sirlim in the west. The centre has two sanitary inspectors, but they have been found inadequate given the huge size of the jurisdiction. Villages in Navelim constituency, including Navelim, Telaulim, Aquem-Baixo, Rumdamol and Davorlim are located kilometers away from Curtorim and villagers have complained that there’s no easy availability of public transport connecting these villages to Curtorim. The new PHC is located near the pancahyat ghar and the area is centrally located for all the villages with adequate public transport.
