TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Sao Jose de Areal residents blamed the authorities for the large presence of migrants and illegal scrap yards in the village for want of administrative action.
As news spread that the deceased was staying in a rented premises without furnishing his antecedents to the police or the panchayat body, locals pointed accusing fingers at the administration for the present situation in Sao Jose de Areal.
Social activist Peter Viegas said though Sao Jose de Areal’s migrant survey has unearthed presence of huge presence of migrants in the village, there’s still no action forthcoming from the authorities. He also slammed the authorities for turning a blind eye to the illegal scrap yards dotting the village. “We have found that there are around 50 illegal scrap yards in Sao Jose de Areal. But district authorities never bothered to crack a whip against these or the migrants not registered with the police or panchayat”, he lamented.
Ward member Milagrina Fernandes maintained that the panchayat had done its best by conducting a survey of the migrants, but lamented that there’s been no follow-up action from the district authorities.
When contacted, Sarpanch Julio Monteiro maintained that the panchayat was bracing up to initiate follow-up action, but the plan did not take off for want of cooperation from the health authorities. “We had a meeting, which was attended by local MLA Benjamin D’Silva and others, wherein it was decided to take the migrant survey to its logical conclusion, especially on the sanitation front, but the health authorities played truant”, Julio said.
On scrap yards, he pointed out that the village had recently written to the authorities for action against the scrap yards, but before any concrete action could come, the panchayat secretary has been given additional charge.
