The incident triggered anger among the locals, who accused the Velsao panchayat of leaving the bus shelter in a dilapidated condition for the last few years.
“It was about 8 am when the bus shelter, which was in dilapidated condition, suddenly collapsed. At that time, a minor girl from the village was waiting for the bus. To her good luck, she was standing outside the bus shelter and not inside, otherwise she would have been trapped under debris. It is due to the lethargy of our panchayat that such a dangerous structure, which is used by hundreds of locals, was left neglected. It is as if the panchayat were waiting for a tragedy to happen before it acted. The panchayat should be booked by the police for its negligence,” said a Velsao local.
“The bus shelter is used by many commuters, especially fish vendors and school students.
Incidentally, schools have declared holidays (summer vacation) and so students were not present. Fish vendors who often use the bus shelter were also not present at the time of the incident, otherwise there would have been casualties,” said John D’ Cruz, a Velsao local.
Meanwhile, accepting the panchayat’s mistake of not repairing the bus shelter, Velsao-Pale-Issorcim sarpanch Henriques D’Mello said, “It is true that the bus shelter was in a dilapidated condition for the last few years. Zuari Industries had constructed the bus stop under CRS funds, and since that time, we have been informed about the bad condition of the bus shelter. We have been making efforts to demolish it and construct a new one, but for that we need sponsors, for which we have been trying hard. We will make sure that a new bus shelter is constructed before the monsoons.”
