Goa far from developed: governor HERALD CORRESPONDENT
SANGUEM, JAN 9 -- Stating that Goa was not a developed State, Governor S C Jamir said that many rural areas were yet to be provided with the basic necessities of water, education, roads and health. On Sunday, during his tour around the wards of Nanegotton, Korlamoddi, Korla, Cazur, Devrem in Pirla in Quepem and Mangal in Sanguem and after an interaction with the poor villagers residing in these villages, Mr Jamir further remarked "We shall be fooling ourselves, if we term these villages to be developed when the villagers residing here lack all the basic necessities." After Sunday's visit to these remote villages, the governor became the first top official to visit these villages after Collector J B Singh's visit to Korla and Korlamoddi a couple of years ago. With the governor having decided to visit the villages, which are all, situated on mountain areas with no tarred roads, all other government officials including Chief Secretary Negi, Collector South J B Singh, Deputy Collector Quepem Kankar Velip, DySp Mohan Naik, PI Nelson Albuquerque and several other officials from PWD (Roads), Water Supply, RDA, Electricity, PHE and Agriculture were compelled to follow suit. The governor's tour to the villages began as early as 8.15 a.m., with the governor first visiting the Nanegotton ward where he had to walk quite a distance on the hilly terrain to hear the people, and concluded at 2.45 p.m. at Don Bosco, Sulcorna. After hearing the grievances of villagers at all the places of his visit, the governor directed the official concerned to get their grievances solved at least in cases which are viable and which the villagers have been demanding since the past several decades. At Nanegotton, villagers complained of the acute drinking water problem they have to face in the month of May and also stressed on the problems they encounter in the absence of any steps and motorable road to their village. The governor urged the RDA officials to see if the problem of constructing steps to the village could be solved under the RDA scheme, while the agriculture department was asked to study the problems faced by the villagers on drinking water front and get them solved. The frequent snapping of electricity lines and also the panchayat's failure to undertake any development work in the village figured at the meeting. On being informed by the PWD authorities of the heavy cost involved in getting the land acquired for the construction of the road to the village, the villagers assured in gifting their land to the government for the construction of the road. When the officials queried of objections being raised by the forest department at certain places for the construction of roads, the governor remarked that humans were more important and said that it appeared as if the government was blind after seeing the plight of the villagers residing in these villages. The problems faced by the villagers at all other places of the visit were similar. At Korla, Korlamoddi, Cazur, Devrem and Mangal, the villagers expressed the need for the construction of tarred road and due provision for drinking water and health facilities. At Korla, Devrem and Mangal, the PWD officials were once again directed to study the water problems faced by the villagers and take appropriate steps in getting the same solved. At Korla, a villager pointed out that while the PWD officials claimed to have constructed a water tank in the village way back in the year 1978, the villager claimed that there never existed a water tank in the village being constructed by the government. The Governor after personally inspecting the lone spring existing in the village, urged the officials to get the spring excavated, if feasible, to ease the drinking water problems faced by the villagers. It was also pointed out that the villagers, at times of sickness had to travel a distance of over 35 kilometres to get to the nearest health center. Villagers also expressed their woes of getting to the medical health center stands compounded in the absence of proper roads and transport facility in the villages. They mentioned an incident of a woman delivering on the way to hospital. Deputy Collector Kankar Velip assured the Devrem villagers of all the possible help from his end in getting their grievances solved with respect to land dispute. The need for the construction of school buildings was also felt at Cazur where two classes were being conducted in a cowshed. The tribal people at Devrem also urged the need for the construction of a school building as the only primary school in the village continued to be housed in a private premise, since its inception. Mr Jamir directed the chief secretary to take note of some of the problems faced by the villagers, which could be taken care off by the government. +++
