Nuvem looks forward to relief from double tracking woes, migrants, garbage, road issues

NUVEM: The constituency of Nuvem, which comprises the villages of Nuvem, Verna, Nagoa, Loutolim, Majorda and Betalbatim, still has a lot of issues that need to be addressed.

This is the view of a cross section of the locals of the constituency, which has an electoral base of around 28,000 voters.  

A common complaint is the increasing migrant labour population from the Verna Industrial Estate and tourism businesses in the coastal belt.

In Nagoa for instance, villagers feel the number of migrants has exceeded the local population and that this puts a major burden on infrastructure and resources. There are similar problems in other villages where lack of hygiene and insufficient police tenant verification has been raised.  Locals feel that checking on both these issues is important for the welfare of the villages. 

Villagers near the industrial estate have also demanded greater returns in terms of dues owed by the industries to the respective panchayat bodies.

Elsewhere, there is anxiety over the condition of the water bodies such as the sewage contamination of ‘Bhokti Khanddi’ in Nuvem.   

Locals also emphasised upon the need to protect the Ambulor Lake, which they point out is fed by streams from the Verna plateau, which in turns empties out into the streams that feed River Sal.

There is another issue in Verna, where for over 15 years, the farmers in Dulape village have been asking for a road of a mere 500 metres long  to make  it easier to transport fertiliser and ready crops, to move farming machinery.  They add that work taken up recently was left incomplete and has halted and thus the farmers are still inconvenienced. 

Another pressing concern is the need for better drainage facilities, especially due to the increased real estate construction activity. Locals say during the rains, water overflows into their compounds and dealing with all this thereafter is difficult. 

Locals have also demanded for better handling of the garbage and setting up of garbage dumping sites where it’s needed.

Locals lament that a part of the land that was given years ago by the comunidade and farmers for a football ground for the youth is presently being used for garbage management. Encroachment of comunidade land is another issue.

Locals also raised issues of lack of jobs for the youth, rise of anti-social elements, requirement of centrally-located health facilities and their opposition to the railway double-tracking project, the corresponding land acquisition process and coal transport.