It is 10 am on a Sunday when people file out of Vasco’s StAndrew’s Church after the morning mass, the same time when scores grandpas andhousewives with husbands in tow descend on Vasco’s vegetable market. The roadto its entrance on the busy F L Gomes Road is full of people crossing, findinga place to park. There is a sudden screech of tyres as a tanker loaded withliquid ammonia grinds to a halt as a 70 year old lady ambles across, justescaping being run over. A couple of hundred metres away, a man on crutchesheading from Vasco Railway Station to Kadamba shuttle stand wonders how heshould climb the footpath outside Karma Plaza Hotel. “Where do I walk, on theroad?” asks the 27 year old Ramashis Yadav to the tourist taxi operators.
This is the story of Goa played out not just in Vasco butpanned out to the rest of Goa. Hundreds of metres of footpaths have beengobbled up by handcarts, by kiosks and even by real estate developers. InMargao, in normal eyesight distance of Margao Municipality and police station,hundreds of people walk dangerously on the road day long as motorists speed by.The reason scores of kiosks have come up on the footpaths. “These kiosks wereallowed decades ago for livelihood purposes when the population was small andthe pedestrian traffic was thin. The futility of that humanitarian gesture isnow evident as a passing motorist bumps into a pedestrian with alarmingregularity,” says former Margao Chairperson Savio Coutinho. The story is repeatedalso near the busy hub outside Cine Nacional in Panjim where kiosks sellingbetel leaves and cigarettes have captured the footpath.
Vasco however has a particular notoriety despite a historicHigh Court Order mandating the cleanup of its footpaths. The recentlyconstructed Anand Trade Centre and Karma Plaza Hotel have both grabbed thefootpath outside their busy built-up areas. Both have busy thoroughfaresrunning around them but the developers paid scant respect to the humble,hapless pedestrian. The Mormugao Municipality that grants permission to thesebuildings stands mute across the road.
“It is a selfish municipality, greedy builders and scheminggadda nexus that is responsible for citizens being denied their footpaths”,explains Leonard Lobo, President, Vasco Citizens Civic Forum. Lobo points outto the obvious. “While Anand Trade Centre and Karma Plaza Hotel lie in front ofMunicipality, the scores of hand carts that took over the footpath of fruitmarket is visible from its legal section. They saw the annexation of footpatheveryday but did nothing”, says Lobo.
With hundreds of cars and two wheelers turning main roadsand side streets of Vasco into giant parking zones, the footpaths in criticallybusy sections have not only been taken over but also pose a threat to thehelpless pedestrian who unconsciously waits for an accident to happen.
