THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO
Ahead of the ensuing municipal election, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and BJP leaders took poll positions over road hot mixing work at Comba on Thursday morning.
PWD officials were caught in the cross fire as Margao MLA Digambar Kamat launched the hot mixing work, drawing ire from agitated BJP leaders. Not to take things lying down, more so in the ongoing game of one-upmanship with the Margao MLA, PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar re-launched the work later in the morning in the presence of local party leaders.
The Comba area, near Vithal Mandir locality literally resembled a fortress as the Goa police mobilized police force in strength as a precautionary measure with the Margao police requisitioning police force from the neighbouring police stations of Fatorda and Maina Curtorim police stations.
The hot mixing programme was scheduled around 10 am on Thursday near the Vithal Mandir at the hands of PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar in the presence of BJP leaders.
In a dramatic turn of events, however, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat along with some residents, including former MMC Chairperson Ajit Hedge, descended in the locality, around 150-200 metres away from Vithal Mandir, and broke the sacred coconut on the hot mix machine to mark commencement of work.
Interestingly, while the hot mix material was found dumped at the Vithal mandir site for the PWD Minister to launch the work, the hot mix machine and a road roller were found parked 150-200 meters away from the temple, where Kamat launched the works sans the hot mix.
After news spread that Kamat has already launched the hot mix work a little away from the Vithal mandir site, BJP leaders raised an uproar, directing their ire at the PWD officials as they demanded to know how the hot mix machine and the road roller were found parked away from the launching site.
Meanwhile, PWD minister Deepak Pauskar who arrived at the venue to launch the hot mixing works had to wait for nearly 30-40 minutes as the hot mixing machine and roller were still parked where Kamat had earlier launched the work, before the Margao police led by PI Sachin went to the site to find the delay over the machine reaching the site.
This further infuriated the BJP workers who demanded action against all the engineers for making the minister wait for more than half an hour. BJP leaders Sharmad Raiturkar, Chandan Nayak, Rupesh Mahatme, Naveen Raikar, Bhai Naik, outgoing Councilors Suchitra Malkarnekar and Ketan Kurtarkar were present at the site.
While targeting the Margao MLA for trying to claim credit for the hot mixing work, saying Kamat did not even visit the area to know the status of the works, BJP workers demanded stern action against the two engineers, squarely blaming them for the episode.
Margao Cong demand action against BJP workers for attacking govt staff on duty
THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO: A PWD Assistant engineer and a Junior engineer suffered the brunt at the hands of BJP leaders and workers as they were heckled and abused, as they held them responsible for the episode that saw Margao MLA Digambar Kamat launching the hot mixing works in Margao.
In fact, one could see a BJP worker removing the face mask of an Assistant engineer, while another worker could be seen forcibly removing the hat worn by a Junior engineer.
As the footage of the episode went viral, questions were raised whether Margao PI Sachin Narvekar would act in the matter, more so when the incident happened right in front of the men-in-uniform.
In fact, PI Sachin and a couple of police made their presence felt near the two engineers, apparently to protect the duo from the crowd.
Meanwhile, the Margao Block Congress Committee president, Gopal Naik has demanded that the police book Margao BJP workers for what he alleged as physical assault on the PWD engineers.
He said the publicity hungry BJP workers resorted to high handedness and physically assaulted the PWD engineers who were on duty during the commencement of hot mixing of roads at Comba in Margao constituency.
“We demand that the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar, South Goa Collector and DGP take suo-moto cognizance of the said incident whose videos are now viral on social media and book all the Margao BJP workers for obstructing and attacking government staff on duty”, he demanded.
BJP demands action against 2 PWD engineers for ‘insulting Pauskar’
THE GOAN NETWORK
MARGAO: BJP leader Sharmad Raiturkar has demanded action against the two PWD engineers for causing insult to the PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar, charging the engineers from making fun of Combkars and the Minister by taking the hot mixing machine away from the site.
He further claimed that the Assistant engineer and the Junior engineer kept their mobile phones switched off, just to facilitate the Opposition leader to launch the hot mixing work at a different place.
“This is totally unacceptable when clear cut instructions were issued to the department that the PWD Minister will come near Vithal Mandir to start the work”, he said.
Sharmad further directed his tirade at the Margao MLA, saying all the works of sewerage and hot mixing works were being carried out because of the constant follow up by BJP workers with former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar. “I wish to bring on record that Parrikar had even called me up from America when he had gone for treatment just to find out whether work has started at Comba”, he recalled.
