MARGAO: Drama unfolded at the Margao PWD office on Wednesday after agitated road users and motorists gheraoed Executive Engineer, Roads, Agnelo Barros over the state of roads in PWD, Div VI, having jurisdiction over Salcete taluka.
The protesters virtually laid a siege for over an hour and left the office after setting a seven-day deadline on the Executive Engineer to either repair the potholed roads or face a sit-in dharna in the office. They threatened to initiate criminal proceedings against the engineer and also move the High Court with a public interest litigation.
Drama began to unfold when the protesters made their presence felt in the PWD building to convey their grievances. After he spotted media persons accompanying the delegation, Barros left the office saying he has to attend to some official work. The protesters followed him to his car and forced him to return back to the office and answer their queries.
The Executive Engineer tried to hand out an assurance that the potholes would be removed within 10 days, but the protesters were not ready to give him a day, demanding the PWD take up the work forthwith.
The protesters further questioned why the PWD has not installed sign boards warning motorists about the potholed roads. When Barros insisted that sign boards are installed by the district magistrate and would move a proposal to the Magistrate, they vowed to collect money from the public to put up the sign boards.
Heated arguments ensued between the engineer and the protesters when the delegation demanded to know whether the PWD will open any Help Line for the people to lodge their complaints over the potholed roads. When Barros maintained that the people can go to the PWD website, they insisted on the address. And, when Barros himself could not provide the website address, they wondered how the engineer could expect the common man to go to the website to register their grievances.
Margao Municipal Councillor Ketan Kurtarkar warned that the people would paralyse the functioning of the PWD if the engineers fail to remove the potholes within seven days. He said the people would initiate criminal proceedings against the Executive Engineer and also send a complaint to the Vigilance if the work does not start immediately. Sanjeev Raiturkar called upon the government to transfer Barros from Div VI and post an engineer who can do justice to the job. He threatened to file a PIL in the High Court.
Activist Avinash Tavares said the engineer had no answer when questioned whether the PWD would take the responsibility for any accident taking place because of the potholes. “The engineer was not ready to take the responsibility for
the accidents, but pushed the buck on the police to find out the reasons,” Tavares added.
