RAIA: Tragedy struck on the person who had been warning that a tragic incident is waiting if corrective measures were not taken. And the 72-year-old became the victim before authorities took the steps to desilt and repair the open drain.
In a terrible incident that could have been avoided, 72-year-old Pedro Antonio Gauncar died after falling into a clogged and overflowing storm water drain along the highway between Pepsi Junction and Our Lady of Livramento Church in Arlem on Tuesday night.
The Maina-Curtorim Police Inspector Mohan Gaude confirmed that as per the post mortem report, the deceased had died due to drowning.
Gaoncar’s death has sent shockwaves amongst the local community as he was a very popular figure in Arlem, who lived near the Church.
As a routine, he would take an evening walk after 7 pm every day but little did he know that this would be the last thing he would be doing before his life was taken away from him so suddenly.
Minguel Gauncar, a relative of the deceased said “He even met someone at 7.30 pm during his walk and they had a nice chat. No one would have ever expected this to happen. It is very heart breaking and more so that he suffered like that.”
He showed Herald letters which Pedro had written to the Raia Village Panchayat in which he explained how the storm water drain was getting blocked and demanding that the drain be desilted and cleaned.
According to the locals, due to the heavy downpour on Monday and Tuesday, the storm water drains were flooded right from the Church to the Pepsi junction. They believe that Gaunkar would have possibly tried to avoid a vehicle on the road or being splashed by a passing vehicle with the water that had covered the road and slipped into the drain. Due to the water logging, he would not have been able to see the edges of the drain either.
“From the injuries he suffered on his head and hands, it looked like he was trying to stop being dragged into the drain and get out of it. Unfortunately, due to the rains and with no one around at that time, no one saw this,” said a local resident, Gabriel Fernandes.
Fernandes added that there was another incident in the past where someone else had died by falling into the drain.
Around 10.30 on Tuesday night, a passerby noticed the body in the drain, which had cleared a bit and informed the Maina-Curtorim police who in turn informed the family of the deceased by 11 pm. Gauncar, who is retired, is survived by his wife, four children and grandchildren. His body was taken to South Goa District Hospital for a post mortem.
Minguel added that the funeral is likely to take place on Friday afternoon as some of his children are abroad.
Former Raia Sarpanch Minguelina Bela D’Souza said that they had written to the PWD to carry out the desilting work, which the PWD did not do and instead asked the Panchayat to do the job. She informed that the Panchayat had undertaken some cleaning work but since the scope of the work was large, it needed the PWD undertake the desilting and cleaning work.
It took the government Pedro’s death to clean the drain, as on Wednesday morning, Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco informed that the work of cleaning and clearing of choked drainage was taken up through PWD.
“We are personally very sorry about the heartbreaking incident at the drain on the same road our good friend Gauncar lost his life last night. May his soul rest in peace,” Lourenco added.
