Basuri Desai
In a major embarrassment to the BJP government, a party leader from the Taleigao constituency who lost the last Assembly polls has been demanding for the sacking of current PWD minister, Sudin Dhavlikar from Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar’s cabinet. The reason behind this is because the minister has failed to provide a proper network of roads or to repair the poor state of roads in Taleigao. This issue has certainly developed cracks between alliance partner BJP and MGP in the state.
The situation in Taleigao and surrounding areas is terrible and has been so for the last three years. Caranzalem and Miramar residents are troubled daily due to the concretization of the Miramar to Dona Paula stretch for a long time now.
The government will have to face the wrath of the people in the coming days as they threaten to hit the streets if the body in power fails to act. Siya Patel, who has settled down in Goa for the past decades says, “Though we aren’t native to Goa, we are paying for each and every resource we use here. Taxes are collected promptly by government agencies but we get absolutely nothing in return. Panjim to Caranzalem, which is a distance of only about 10 minutes, today takes close to 45 minutes by car.”
Patel said she intends to write to local legislator, Jennifer Monseratte so as to wake her and get her involved in some public work.
Last month, Herald highlighted the cracks that have developed on the under construction Miramar to Dona Paula road. The cracks were found when Herald inspected a 3km stretch which has been completed on one side of the road and noted that a total of 15 cracks were found.
From Miramar circle to the Science Center, four cracks were found and from there till Caranzalem, there were a further 11 major cracks. The cracks measure almost an inch which questions the quality of the concrete road under construction.
Light vehicular movement has commenced with restricted entry from one side and it is still not completely open for traffic. The development of cracks on this surface within such a short time raises alarms over the type of work being carried out by M/S Venkata Rao Infrastructure company, to whom a total of Rs 72 crore has been allotted by the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC).
Prasad Rao, a contractor of the road, however has noted that this is a regular phenomenon and that the cracks will be filled using polysulphide.
The work was allotted to the company in February 2014 and is supposed to be completed by the end of 2015 but so far, according to the GSIDC, only 35% of the task is done.
Pramod Sawant, chairman of the GSIDC has said that he will be inspecting the site immediately along with his team and if need be, an inquiry will be ordered into the matter.
Due to the construction of the main road, traffic was diverted through the interior road of Caranzalem and due to the heavy load, this road as well has turned bad. It is badly crying out for repair work. Potholes are seen every few metres from Miramar to the NIO Circle.
Raju Ravindran, resident of Caranzalem said that they have been facing this issue for the past three years and blames local leader Dattaprasad Naik instead of the local MLA. “There are numerous potholes right in front of Dattaprasad’s house. He has failed to convince the Chief Minister. Why does he make statements through the press all the time and not pressurize his own government?” he questioned.
Seby Pereira, a resident of Taleigao mentioned that locals of the area are suffering due to infighting between political leaders. “Why we, the common men have to suffer on account of them? They are squeezing people for their own benefit,” he asserted.
Odxel is another village suffering due to the negligence of the PWD. Odxel has a population of over a 1000 people, including over 100 families who have been residing here for decades. Due to their trade (fishing), these people settled down in the village, but the sad part is that the only road that connects their village to the rest of Goa is in a pathetic condition.
In his defence, Dattaprasad Nail said that the condition of Taleigao roads is not a failure of the BJP government but has deliberately been done by the MGP’s Sudin Dhavlikar in order to bring the BJP, which was actually doing pretty well, down in the constituency.
Naik went on to allege that some of the roads were wrongly shown on the ODP to favour the builder lobby by then Taleigao MLA, Atanasio Monseratte. The Odxel road was shown to be 8 metres wide but in reality, is only 3 metres wide.
“The PWD has assured us that the hot mixing of the road will be completed by November end. If they fail to do so, then the roads all over Taleigao and Caranzalem will be paralyzed for an indefinite time,” he opined.
