Despite being next door, Raia kept out of Fatorda PS

GUILHERME ALMEIDA
MARGAO
The eastern-bypass acts as a demarcation between the limits of Fatorda and neighbouring Raia. From Raia, one can see the imposing newly-inaugurated Fatorda police station with a naked eye. In fact, the new police station is just a stone's throw away and right in the backyard of Raia.
Yet, Raikars will have no option than to travel almost five kilometers to knock the doors of the police since the Maina Curtorim police station is located in Margao at the district police headquarters. Reason: The Fatorda police station has jurisdiction only up to the limits of the Margao Municipal Council consisting of the 11 wards of Fatorda and the three wards of Housing Board. Besides Raikars, residents of Loutolim, including Rassaim area, will have to cross the Fatorda police station to knock the doors of the Maina Curtorim police station at Margao.
In fact, sources in the Goa police told The Goan that when the police department had first mooted the idea of carving out the Fatorda police station, the plan was to include the Fatorda municipal area, besides Nuvem and Rassaim area of Loutolim village in the new police station.
Incidentally, the Maina Curtorim police station, which has in its jurisdiction as many as 13 villages with a population of over 1.55 lakh, is located at the district police headquarters, Margao with no lock-up facility.
What's surprising to note is that while it took just five months for the Goa police to carve out the Fatorda police station post March-11 after Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai joined hands with Manohar Parrikar to form the coalition government, land admeasuring 9000 sq mts acquired by the Goa police to house the Maina Curtorim police station at Sonsodo is lying idle for want of any development. Police sources said that the land in question was acquired around 2005, but the proposal to construct a full-fledged police station for Maina Curtorim has been lying in cold storage for reasons best known to the powers that be.
Three-time Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, however, said that carving out new police stations need not necessarily mean a solution to the prevailing crime rate. "I agree that the Maina Curtorim police station needs a full-fledged building and I had been repeatedly taking up the issue in the Assembly and outside, but in vain," Reginaldo told The Goan, adding that he would pursue the proposal with the government.
What's interesting to note is that while Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has promised to carve out a new police station at Navelim in his speech at the Fatorda police station inauguration, there was no word or mention on government's plan to set in motion the process for the construction of a full-fledged Maina Curtorim police station.