Defunct Azossim Govt School has 'attendance' for one year
Six families live here as their houses were damaged in landslide
KISHOR NAIK
AGASSAIM
At a time when many government schools are being shut down for want of students, a defunct government school at Azossim has had attendance of a different kind for the past one year.
Believe it or not, two of six families who were displaced after a landslide partially damaged their structures at Dongrim on June 18, 2015, have been temporarily rehabilitated at the government school in Azossim for an entire year.
The six affected families may have received some financial assistance after the incident, but they feel that politicians have gone against their promises and are now unwilling to go back to their homes in Azossim.
The houses of six families were partially damaged on June 18, 2015, after huge boulders came crashing down behind their houses. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar and local MLA Vishnu Wagh had inspected their homes and the government later gave them a cheque for Rs 3.5 lakh and six families were given temporary shelter in the government school at Azzosim. Four families later left the school premises and relocated elsewhere, leaving two families to reside in the school for the past one year.
The displaced families, however, feel that the government is yet to honour its promise of rebuilding their partially damaged houses.
Speaking to The Goan, the affected families said they were hoping that their houses would be repaired before the monsoon.
“The government had assured to rebuild our houses before the monsoon,” Chandravati Naik told The Goan.
“As part of temporary shelter, St Andre MLA Vishnu Wagh had initially moved all members of the six affected families to the Azzosim primary school. The MLA has also given us a cheque for Rs 3.50 lakh from the Chief Minister's Relief Fund and had assured to repair our houses and build protection walls,” informed Naik.
“We fear that our partially damaged houses will be destroyed during this monsoon season,” she added.
Added Bhiku Borkar, “Monsoon has already arrived and the government has not fulfilled its promise.”
After an inspection of the landslide site, the financial assistance announced by Parsekar was divided among the six affected families. MLA Wagh then distributed the amount among the affected families.
“We cannot forget the help we got from Parsekar, Dhavalikar and Wagh, but the government should do something to fulfill all assurances given to us,” said a family member.
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Committed to building retaining wall, repair houses: Wagh
PANAJI: Assuring to honour his promise of rebuilding the damaged houses at Dongrim, Deputy Speaker and St Andre MLA Vishnu Surya Wagh said lengthy procedures had led to a delay in completing the work.
Speaking to The Goan when he visited this daily's head office in Panaji on its first anniversary, Wagh said he was fully committed to building the damaged houses.
“They will be completed after some period of time. However, there are certain guidelines and technicalities that the government has to complete before taking up a project. All these procedures took up time and hence, there was a delay in the repair work,” informed Wagh.
“The work to rebuild the houses and a protection wall will be taken up at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore. Everything was in place to rebuild the houses, but the contractor was reluctant to take up the contract. We will soon implement work to rebuild the damaged houses,” he added.
He was asked if the displaced families had already been compensated, since he had handed over Rs 3.5 lakh from government funds for their partially damaged houses and had also given them temporary housing.
“On my part, I provided them with temporary shelter in the government primary school which was closed down at Azzosim. I also had other facilities such as bathroom and kitchen, built for them at the school. In addition, I provided them with financial assistance of Rs 3.5 lakh from government funds. I have given them an assurance to rebuild their houses and I am firm on honouring this promise,” Wagh added.
