A 70-year-old widow, Somargya Harwalkar from Khotodem village, is demanding for help, food and shelter from the Government for the past many years.
Harwalkar is staying in a hut which is now in a dilapidated condition and is likely to collapse at any time. In monsoon season, rain water seeps inside her hut due to which she is not able to sleep.
She just manages to have one meal a day as she does not have money to buy food and no one is coming forward to help this old widow.
“I am living my life alone in a dilapidated hut for the past many decades without proper food and basic facilities. Sometimes my neighbour helps me by giving me food. Long back my Khotodem village Panchayat had promised me they would provide me a proper house and two meals a day. But till date they have not fulfilled their promised. Now I cannot speak more, I don’t have that much of energy. My stomach is empty since morning,” said Harwalkar.
The Khotodem Village Panchayat Sarpanch, Omprakash Barve, said that “we are in the 21st century and that old widow does not have a house to stay, which hurts us. She is helpless. So we included her name into the ‘Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Scheme’ and she was selected. Now the problem is that she does not have a house number, and the ownership of the land. That’s why we cannot build her a house.”
The Government has submitted a circular to all panchayats of Goa to stop giving the token number. There are around 60 files pending in our Panchayat house asking for the token number for the past one and half years, added Barve.
“The villagers submit to us all the documents regarding the illegal house or for new house, while putting in a file. And later on, the Panchayats are registering the houses and giving the villagers a number called token number.
“For past one year the Government has stopped giving this token number. Now we demand the Government give us new guide lines on the token number so that we can help our villagers. If we can’t help the villagers in providing them basic necessities of life, then what is the use of a village panchayat? There is no use of Village Panchayats in rural villages of Goa,” says Omprakash Barve.
“I have submitted a file to the Panchayat for a token number and it is pending for the last two years. I have visited the office several times but every time they say the Government has stopped giving token number. Now I demand the Government to provide us token number again,” says Arvind Mhalshekar, a villager from Barazan village, Valpoi.
