TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Green Goa Foundation on Monday lodged a complaint against officials of Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) and the contractor M/s Vijay Kumar Sawant Associates for alleged gross negligence leading to flooding at Cuncolim on July 2.
In a complaint lodged with the Cuncolim police and the district police chief, GGF Chairman Raison Almeida said the entire episode of flooding at Sanvorcotto in Cuncolim was due to ill-designed and ill-planned construction of a pipe culvert over the rivulet. He pointed out that is well-known that the rivulet gets flooded during the monsoon and the channel has to be free of obstacles for the free flow of water. “Instead the pipe culvert was built in such a way that debris such as branches of trees blocked the pipes. The culvert became a dam and all the water gathered behind it and entered the village,” he said.
Saying that it does not require big engineers to know that piped culverts cannot be put up on rivulets with fast flowing waters, Almeida said the flooding has occurred entirely because Ms Vijay Kumar Sawant Associates and GSIDC have failed to take basic precautions while constructing the culvert. “The culvert has now been removed. The cost of the culvert was in excess of Rs one crore. Today, the loss suffered by the State and the people cumulatively is in excess of Rs three crore due to ill-planned construction of the culvert. The old bridge which was supposed to have been dismantled and reconstructed still stands and there is no guarantee that it will last for long,” he added.
