PRATIK PARAB
Pratik@herald-goa.com
South Goa Planning and Development Authority chairman Mauvin Godinho undertook the responsibility of cleaning the fish market and improving the situation there. Godinho had to face the brunt of angry fishermen and fisherwomen soon after he took charge of the SGPDA. Frustrated fish retailers had angrily told him that the market complex hadn’t been cleaned for years.
Godinho promised to clean it up and to fulfill many of their demands and work has begun. But the building where all these decisions are taken, the SGPDA office, is trapped in tonnes of filth.
The Osia complex, where the SGPDA has its office has garbage all around, dirty toilets and walls painted red by paan. There was even a decomposed corpse of a cat near the lift to the office and queried about the condition of the building the SGPDA Member Secretary Ashok Kumar merely made another promise. “I have taken charge just two days back, but I will see into the matter as soon as possible,” Kumar said.
What surprises all is that Godinho visits the office every week but the situation hasn’t improved.
Before Godinho’s appointment, the Fatorda MLA and the MMC Chairperson had visited this premises and left promising to clean it up. But nothing has changed.
There is garbage spread on the ground floor of the building. The first floor which has shops is clean to some extent. The Road Transport Office on the second floor is visited by hundreds of people daily who bring plastic water bottles and dump them in various corners. There were even empty beer bottles and scrap material in the toilets on the 2nd floor, leading to speculation that there might be parties happening here.
Several agents at the RTO place newspapers and plastics on the stairs to sit on, as the floor hasn’t been cleaned, and later dump the papers and waste at the same place after their work is done.
On the third floor is the SGPDA office, whose employees enter and exit walking on the garbage and filth. Herald made attempts to speak with Godinho but he could not be contacted.
Dominic Noronha, a frequent visitor to the offices, claims that the condition is getting worse daily. “The condition is such that the government needs to intervene in the matter or it won’t ever be resolved,” Noronha said.
