CANACONA
Imagine you reside on a remote hamlet inside the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary without proper electricity supply and your nearest road is a three-hour walk about 12 kms away after passing through streams and forested areas infested with wildlife.
This is the plight of residents from Keri who are upset over the State government’s failure to provide them with a proper road and effective power supply and have now threatened to boycott the upcoming polls.
Keri, a remote locality on a hillock surrounded by dense forest cover in Cotigao village, has around 120 people residing in 15 houses, with 83 of them being voters.
The locality is part of the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary and forest rules do not permit development such as roads for safety of wildlife.
Residents have to climb the hillock and pass through streams and thick forest cover for nearly 12 kms before reaching the main Cotigao village road.
Blaming various governments for ignoring them, a resident, Kamlakar Velip, while speaking in the presence of most villagers, complained: “where is the ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and what is the use of ‘Swayampurna Goem’, when our government had not utilised even a single rupee for the welfare or development of our ward?”
“Does Keri do not come under Goa? Why have various governments not done anything for us for so many years?”
After residents of Marlim-Tirval in another part of the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary managed to get their decades-old demands fulfilled after their boycotting en mass the last Lok Sabha polls, residents of Keri have also threatened to boycott the upcoming polls if there is no solution to their long-pending demand for a 1.5 mtr wide road and effective electricity within the next 3 months.
“We are not demanding a full-fledged road, just a pathway or a road of about 1.5 mtr wide to enable us to walk or ride two-wheelers to our locality. We don’t want solar power, but proper power supply.”
“Despite several requests, the government has not addressed our concerns, except to state that Keri falls under the Cotigao Wildlife Sanctuary and roads cannot be made in the area.”
“It that is so, how has the government provided roads, electricity and water supply in other areas within the wildlife sanctuary,” asked Velip.
“Why is there a bias against the people of Keri? We have graduates and undergraduates, but not even a single resident of Keri is given a government job.”
Added a youth, Ganesh Velip: “We tribal residents are virtually left to live on our own and are cut-off from the mainland. Our children either reside in a residential school or stay with relatives to pursue education.”
“We are not asking for something impossible. We just want basic needs in our locality. We have become helpless in cases of accidents, emergencies or even deliveries. No doctor can reach our area nor are we in a position to travel to take medical help.”
A student, Mahesh Gaonkar, said he has been staying in a hostel to attend classes.
“People have to start at 5 am to walk through thick and infested forested area to reach the nearest road to catch the bus at 8 am,” he said.
