Opening an umbrella inside a building is said to bring you, and the occupants inside, bad luck. But what's a person to do if they've got a severely leaking roof? At the Zonal Agricultural Office (ZAO) in Margao, it's raining inside as staff members are forced to sit at their desks with open umbrellas to avoid getting drenched. And that's not all. Buckets of water are collected from the office everyday and water even enters the electricity boards posing great risk to the occupants.
This is the pitiable condition under which the staff of ZAO is forced to work. And it's not just government offices that have been unable to bear the brunt of the South West monsoons. Take Goa's roads, most of which have been washed away, despite the colossal sums of money spent on them. Even the recently installed LED streetlights have begun malfunctioning at the first sign of rain. The fact remains that the infrastructure in the state, and especially those that were completed on a fast-track before the Assembly elections, now sport a hopeless air of neglect. As a result, much of it is damaged or has deteriorated because of poor maintenance. On Friday, power minister Pandurang Madkaikar assured 100% LED street lighting across Goa by Ganesh Chaturthi. But what's the point of installing even more LED lights when you cannot maintain the ones already in place? This despite the fact that the contract awarded to Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) at a cost of Rs 92.34 crore has an 8-year maintenance provision in the clause.
