Team Herald
MARGAO: The ongoing Ganesh festival and rush by people to meet the September 30th deadline resulted in severe hardships for people who had come to renew their DeenDayalSwasthyaSeva Yojana cards at the two renewal centers in Margao today.
Serpentine queues were seen at both the places where these cards are renewed in Margao. While at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex there were about 50 people standing in the queue even at 5:30 pm at the Urban Health Centre there were fewer people with only about 25 waiting for their turn.There were three operators working at both the places as two operators had gone on leave due to Ganesh festival at the Urban Health Centre while at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex one computer had crashed.Incidentally only the three operators were on duty in the evening at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex as the supervisor had taken half day leave.The operators at both the places said the huge queues were because of the rush by people many of whom had come even though they did not receive the message to visit the centre to renew their cards.The government’s announcement that 30th September 2018 will be the last date to renew the DDSSY cards apparently triggered a panic reaction amongst the people who rushed to the centres to check if their cards could be renewed even without receiving the message.Visitors at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex centre were put to greater hardships as the canteen there was closed due to Ganesh and people could not even get a bottle of water to quench their thirst and had to depend upon some good samaritans who volunteered to get water to some of them.
