Team Herald
MARGAO: Bharatiya Janata Party’s membership drive in Sirvodem on Monday was disrupted when a resident questioned the party’s representatives as to why the oak tree which fell a week ago was not removed yet.
It may be recalled that on August 5, a huge oak tree fell across the road along with two small trees and around four coconut trees. The fire and emergency services staff cleared the two smaller trees but failed to remove the oak tree for which they said a special cutter was required.
BJP Margao Mandal president Subodh Govekar, who resides in Sirvodem claimed to be unaware about the incident though the tree blocked one access to the remaining part of Sirvodem, which is inhabited mostly by Muslims.
The local asked Subodh to resign as the Mandal president if he does not know about the problems faced by the locals. Subodh later contacted local councillors Doris Texeira and Manoj Massurkar and asked them to remove the oak tree through Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat. Texeira said a private cutter was quoting around Rs 80,000 to cut the tree and nobody was willing to pay that amount as the tree fell in the property purchased by a builder.
The person who suffered the most was a senior citizen aged in his 90s Jose Antonio Afonso whose gate has been blocked as he cannot take his car out of the compound and has only a footpath as access at present.
