The Calvim tragedy may have got Aldona public attention for the wrong reasons. But there’s a lot else that has been drowned in the village - the will to find a solution to the garbage mess and improving infrastructure
Aldona has many bridges to build. And not all of them willjoin two banks of a river. The bus tragedy at Calvim last year will result inthe construction of a new bridge, but Aldona has many other bridges ofdevelopment to build.
Aldona is still a perfect piece of what Goa was twenty yearsago. Meandering fields, old houses and sense of calm that defied time andspace. Last year without quite wanting to, Aldona was news when a bus carryingschool children fell into the Calvim river, killing six people. The CalvimBridge construction has been tendered and work will begin once the monsoon isover. But there are issues beyond the bride.
One of the constantand basic issues of Aldona is the proper disposal of waste. Charudatta Panjikar,a villager states “Our main issue here is disposal of garbage. Four of theneighbouring panchayats , Pomburpa, Ucasaim, Nachnola and Aldona want to gettogether and avail the facilities provided by the Penha da Franca garbageplant. That project is still under contemplation.”
Newly electedSarpanch Ujwalla Kandolkar says “We hope to get together with the otherpanchayats and get this project under way. It would solve our garbage issue.Other than that we have no issues in Aldona that can’t be solved.” One wouldwonder if this is just the mere inexperience of the new Sarpanch, as othervillagers have highlighted several other issues here as well.
For instance the Khorjuem fort is almost in ruins and noeffort is being made to restore it. There are no signboards, barricades orspeed breakers to indicate the ferry wharf. This spot is frequented by touristsduring the year and is a danger zone. Another villager claims “There areillegal towers being constructed with no proper permissions, and the fact that theTCP issued permissions to construct a primary school in a landslide prone zoneis appalling as well. The St Thomas school is precariously situated atop thisarea with no retaining wall. The distance between the school and the nextbuilding is a mere six metres.”
The residents of Aldona are still struggling to terms withthe tragedy that happened not so long ago, and praying for deliverance fromillegal activities and the issues of its village.
