Team Herald
PONDA: The Marcaim villagers are angry at the officials of Goa Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) and Health Services for shifting on each other, the responsibility of taking action on the illegalities at the local industrial estate.
Under the banner of Marcaim Nagrik Kruti Sangh (MNKS), the villagers have been agitating against illegalities in the local industrial estate and for jobs in the units there.
And two months ago, the villagers complained to the officials of GIDC, Health and Marcaim Panchayat that the units at Marcaim Industrial Estate have constructed hundreds of illegal rooms and housing factory workers in them.
Following this, a joint inspection was conducted wherein the officials found hundreds of illegal rooms in the industrial estate housing factory workers. The officials also found that the workers were defecating and releasing wastewater in the open. Besides, the toilets being used by the workers were unhygienic.
A report of the inspection listing these illegalities at the industrial estate was prepared by the Health officials and submitted to the officials of GIDC.
Premanand Gaude of MNKS lamented that the officials have failed to take action against those responsible for the illegalities at the industrial estate, even two months after the inspection.
“We were hoping that the Health and IDC officials would take action against those responsible for the illegalities. However, neither of the officials has taken action,” he complained.
“Therefore, today we confronted the Marcaim Health official and IDC field manager for their failure to take action against those responsible for the illegalities at the industrial estate. However, both the officials were shifting responsibility on the other,” he said.
According to Gaude, since GIDC is the governing authority at the Marcaim Industrial Estate, it is the responsibility of its officials to take action by disconnecting power and water to the erring units, and also demolishing the illegal rooms.
On the job front, Gaude said, “The government policy is that 80 percent of the jobs in the private sector should go to the locals and for the remaining 20 percent, the companies are free to hire anybody.”
“However, more than 90 percent of the jobs at the Marcaim industries are occupied by migrants; not even 10 percent of the jobs are given to the locals. We had asked the IDC to give us a tabular list of workers employed at Marcaim factories, but the factories and the IDC officials are reluctant to provide the list. This shows that Goans are deprived of jobs in their own State,” he said.
“This Industrial Estate is beneficial only for migrants,” he quipped.
He demanded that government clarify why no action is taken against illegalities at the Marcaim Industrial Estate.
