It’s a south side story all right. With 595 of the 853 COVID cases from South Goa and five of the six deaths, the laid-back South is literally blazing with cases. And hospitals and COVID Centres get filled up and a spate of funerals and cremations has been witnessed; villagers in the interiors of Salcete simply decided to turn in. Get people into homes, shut shops and establishments and bring their villages to a halt.
The idea was to protect their villagers from COVID entering. In a State where village boundaries are thin and there is easy access and mingling, the jury is out on whether self-imposed voluntary lockdowns serve their purpose; the panchayats themselves defend their decisions strongly. And in a throwback to the days when the panchayat was the seat of decision making and even jurisprudence, a fair bit of this was witnessed as villages after villages took independent calls.
And yes they had an Act and section to show too. Section 60 of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act, which mentions the ‘provision for carrying out within the panchayat area any other work or measure which is likely to promote the health, safety, education, comfort, convenience or special or economic well-being of the inhabitants of the Panchayat area’
BUT THE STORY BEGAN IN THE NORTH
Ironically though, the lockdown diaries of South Goa had its origins in North Goa. It was North Goa which led the way as of sorts, triggered off when a health worker from Guleli in Sattari posted in Vasco tested positive. Imagine these are villages in the north eastern fringes of Goa bordering Karnataka. And it took one case of a village person posted down South in Vasco, for Guleli to press the panic button and announce a village lockdown. Very soon the village of Keri announced a lockdown on June 9 followed the next day by nearby Morlem. Interestingly, in Keri the youth of the village approached the elected panchas and impressed upon the need to lock down to “prevent the virus from entering their villages” And in Usgao, a different body decided to take matters in the own hands. This time it was the bus owners’ association, which ‘decided’ to stop plying their private buses on the Ponda-Usgao route “to stop the spread of Coronavirus”
To each,- each village that is- their own. And this mantra soon started getting chanted in South Goa, especially in Salcete. And the local takeaway is that the villages, which did not call for a lockdown, are those that have faced the brunt of the sudden spike in cases in the neighbourhood and ended up in panic pleading for a containment zone. Many panchayats felt that villages that ‘have risen up to the situation’ in the early stages and ‘reaped rich dividends’ as they saw the extreme rise in cases all over the Salcete taluka.
The village of Carmona, for example, had opted for a 10-day voluntary lockdown of the village. The panchayat said that though there was no order issued, the lockdown received tremendous response. The fact that this village was surrounded by cases in Chinchinim, Ambelim, Cuncolim, Assolna and other places had forced the village to make this preemptive, explained the Sarpanch of the village Allwyn George.
Carmona after being shut down for the last 10 days has opened on Saturday. The villages ‘elders’ (read panchayat members) feel that the seriousness, which seemed to be lacking amongst the villagers, regarding the pandemic has been reinstated. “The lockdown was fully voluntary and had a tremendous response”, said Sarpanch George. He also explained that the exit of migrants from the village has been a boon as these are the people who gathered in the market areas, ate food on carts and intermingled.
The villages of Cavelossim, Assolna, Chinchinim and Cuncolim to some extent had observed similar lockdowns. “The reason for the sudden spike was the lack of seriousness among the people after lacklustre statements and indecisive decisions of the Government of Goa. Now, Carmona has successfully thwarted the threat and is going in for unlocking with caution”, George opined.
Chinchinim had also introduced a voluntary lockdown and advised the shops and establishments to make sure they avoid overcrowding. Sarzora shut down the entry to the lake as several people from other localities came for joyrides here.
Meanwhile, Chandor, with Curtorim as its border had a focused lockdown in the markets mainly in the market complex. Chandor had observed the growing trend of COVID cases in their neighboring village of Curtorim and held the market shut for at least 5 days. The Sarpanch Edward D’silva said “Since most of the vendors from the market complex hailed from Curtorim the shutdown was necessary as it was most likely that the carrier would come to the market and spread the virus into the village.”
The Chandor panchayat however, took the advantage of the shutdown and sanitized the market to make sure they are shielded from the potential spread.
Curtorim, which had the first micro-containment zone, had on the very second day ‘advised’ the vendors and persons coming from outside to the village not to enter for a while until the nature of the virus spread was ascertained. Curtorim then grew into 31 cases and the people decided to shut the entry to the village. The village has now successfully reversed the curve and there is a cheer as patients are getting cured, fortunately. The Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco said “The first case detected in Curtorim was a vendor in the market hence, it was most necessary to avoid entering the village.”
Raia too had asked the vendors who came to the village regularly to avoid their visits for at least 4 days.
In the deep south of Cuncolim, the village had a voluntary complete lockdown called out by the Cuncolim Municipal Council from June 28 to July 5. It may be underlined that the Fatorpa-Quitol panchayat also issued notice to vendors and shopkeepers to keep the market closed from June 28 to July 5, only to realise today that the village now had COVID-19 cases. The move here too was preemptive but did not do any good to the cause.
Margao being the commercial capital of the State wouldn’t have afforded or managed to have voluntary lockdowns of the manner in which the villages did. However, the worst fears came true as the Monte Hill area got affected, but was contained surprisingly very soon.
AMBELIM & FATORPA VIRUS SPREAD SAGA
The virus did not even spare villages with revered places of worship. Just as the village of Ambelim was preparing for their worst nightmare, it was double jeopardy as the cases that originated in their village dropped like a bomb in the nearby Fatorpa village. The village that houses the revered temples of goddess Shantadurga Cuncolikarin and Shantadurga Fatorpekarin has experienced a spike in cases without a clue. The Fatorpa spread that started from Ambelim grew rapidly. A closer look into what went wrong shows that if the two sisters from Fatorpa, who tested positive had not attended a wedding and a funeral, they would have largely saved the village from the misery. The spike did not even spare an MLA of Salcete and cast a shadow over other MLAs, who got themselves quickly tested and were fortunately all COVID negative
The attendance of public, social and religious functions by the two Fatorpa sisters has resulted in a major spread of infection. The doctor at the Balli Primary Health Center, where all Fatorpa suspects were tested, Dr Mamta Kakodkar said “The women had attended functions and then came back to their village in Fatorpa where they met others and to top it all, also attended a funeral”.
This cements the fact that the people of Goa have lost the seriousness of the pandemic. The Carmona village got serious with the problem and Chandor too which saved them from the misery.
The Fatorpa panchayat too had locked itself down in the initial stages but no panchayat had the mechanism to man each and every person from their village. The Deputy Sarpanch of Fatorpa Sanzil D’costa, recently asked for a containment zone in the village and it has been declared now. However, with no signs of the cases reducing or the curve flattening, the panchayats now have a tough job in hand to make sure the seriousness and awareness of the pandemic is not passed on to the people.
(with inputs from other Team Herald reporters)
