A dilapidated government school building looking like a war- bombarded premises; a rural dispensary catering to the medical needs of 30,000 odd villagers, including people living at Goa’s biggest slums at Zuarinagar, Sancoale in Mormugao Taluka could be the best example of Goa’s neglected panchayat.
In an effort to find out whether the villages in Goa are actually blessed with proper roads, healthcare and government school facilities or not, Herald Investigation Team (HIT) conducted a week-long survey by visiting the government schools and heath care facilities provided by the state government in Sancoale village and the outcome of the survey is nothing less than a shocker.
The HIT first visited the Government high and middle school at Zuarinagar. Surprisingly unlike other government schools that are facing threat of closure due to low enrolment, this school is blessed to with over 333 students studying in two different mediums, i.e English and Kannada medium. Sadly the infrastructure available does not meet the requirements of students studying in this government school which is catering to large number of migrant population settled at Zuarinagar slums. Practically it is a school with four walls and good teachers besides students scoring good results in SSC (last year 82.75 per cent). With the exception of the excellent results there is nothing that one can talk good about the school.
The school has vast property providing scope for expansions. However, the existing facilities at this school are fully congested to an extent that three students have to share one bench to sit and learn. Similarly there is no scope for the teachers to take coaching classes. The first floor of the high school building is leaking during rains and fans fitted are only for display as only one fan in classrooms is in working condition while others are awaiting repairs since last several years.
Science lab as well as Std X students are accommodated in same room, headmaster cabin is also a library, and computer lab is also used as a classroom for teaching other subjects. Practically lack of space in the school haunts the staffs and students.
Interestingly when asked, the students from Standard IX happily said they are very comfortable with the teachers but are unhappy with the infrastructure provided. Some of them even complained about lack of security in the school throughout the day. Some said that the locals using the school campus as shortcut to main road is risky for students and some students claimed the school premises acts as a safe den for anti-social elements during evening hours as everyday they find beer cans thrown inside the school premises.
All this is happening because there is no security personnel deployed, nor the request for the CCTV cameras by the school management got fulfilled.
The next important aspect was to find out the ground reality about the condition of health services in the Sancoale village. Surprisingly this village is having highest population among all other panchayats in Goa, but a lone rural dispensary is catering to over 30,000 people living in the village.
As per the Health Department officials, last year the department converted the sub health centre located on the boundary of Sancoale and Cortalim village Panchayat (near St Philip and James church) into a rural dispensary) but shortage of staff is affecting the medical healthcare system provided by the state government, though the doctors here are regularly conducting medical OPD.
For the people living in Zuarinagar slums, a Urban Primary health centre (UPHC) that was made operational due to initiative taken by MLA Alina Saldanha also shut down its operations.
Overall the roads situation in the village is satisfactory as the office of local MLA Alina Saldanha got most of the village roads tarred before the monsoons.
