PANJIM: What do we do when authorities turn a deaf ear to all our pleads and requests? Tired and exhausted from continuous attempts, we tend to give up.
But in the case of Caranzalem locals, that isn’t what they did. On being neglected, they took the matter in their own hands to save the only ground in the village for the betterment of the youth.
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It is given to understand that the venue – which was earlier given by the Governor of Goa to the Grupo Desportivo de Caranzalem (Caranzalem Sports Club), was once used as the training facility by top clubs — Dempo Sports Club, Sesa Football Academy team and even the GFA State team for junior nationals.
“Top Goan players with the likes of Derrick Pereira, Anthony Baptista, Brahmanand Sankhwalkar, Francis Gonsalves and many more — all played at this ground. This place once hosted many top inter-village tournaments, but then things changed. This ground was totally neglected by everyone; even our own village children avoided this place,” stated a resident Peter Figueiredo.
Peter said that earlier in the 90’s they had once restored the ground to playing condition after being neglected by the authority.
The venue hosted top inter-village tournaments too. Those were things of the past! Now, it’s not even used for leisure purposes.
It was left in ruins for many years, until the day a young woman from the village Jessica Lawrence took the initiative along with many others to restore the facility back to playing conditions.
However, it is given to understand that neighbouring residents started dumping dry waste, debris and also released sewage which made it unfeasible for usage in recent times.
Citing trouble for the youth, Jessica approached authorities including CCP and State sports association after the ground was misused and was lying in ruins for the last few years. Left with no answers, the youth didn’t give up and started the cleaning work with the help of locals.
“CCP officials inspected the ground in the first week of November last year but failed to take any action,” stated Peter.
“Now nearly after 15 years, the locals from the village came together and took charge in their own hands. Peter Lawrence, Cris Lopes stood with me and the locals provided all the morale support in clearing the mess at the ground. If you see the ground today, it’s in a playable condition and the youth started returning to this place,” added Peter. “We cleared nearly 105 trucks of debris which were dumped by the people staying in neighbouring areas and we had to put 68 trucks of good mud to restore the ground to playing conditions,” stated Jessica.
“I had approached State associations and other sports authority offices, but received no help from any of them,” said Jessica.
“We should be thankful to present Salgaocar FC coach Anthony Levino Pereira, Peter Lawrence and Peter Figueiredo and local youth for sponsoring the goalpost, sand, mud and side nettings for the ground. This is the best example when the authority fails, the locals need to unite to save the facilities ,” stated a local Rezlie Dias, who acted as the local manager along with Rohit Narvekar to ensure the ground works were carried out successfully. “The main aim of the locals is to maintain the ground for the benefit of the Caranzalem youth.” they all stated.
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History of the ground
