PANJIM: Tourists pour in from all over right from seven in the morning. Lines and lines of tourists of all hues and sizes, young and old, man and woman – all walking down to the jetty after disembarking from busses or cars.
The luckier ones are on hired bikes and zoom down to the jetty, past the disinterested police, leading to the general din and confusion.
Lack of parking has led to vehicles – including large busses – being parked on both sides of the road narrowing the road considerably and resulting in traffic jams during peak hours.
The police are no doubt stationed there and are doing the job given their limitations. But there is not much that they can do. There is no parking available and the general chaos makes finding a designated parking area impossible to locate.
When contacted the first citizen of the city Mayor Surendra Furtado said: “It is a total mess. What can I say? Nobody wants to act. Outsiders are coming and just parking all over. There is no place to park. The only solution is to use forest park and make parking place available. Also on the way to Rosary School, there is government land there – known as bhoot bungalow – which can be also used for parking. But the will should be there.”
Dona Paula resident Melwyn da Silva says: “Looks like there is some politics between departments (PWD and GSIDC) and so there is a delay. At least for the last months no work has been done. Nothing is moving. This is totally ridiculous,”
Clearly, the authorities are hapless and more seriously hopeless.
