MAPUSA
Very rarely do government officials act swiftly and moreover, take remedial action.
But Friday was different and so was Civil Supplies Inspector, Bhanu Goltekar, who visited the residence of Antonette Dias in Calvim, after reading a report in The Goan.
He met the aggrieved Calvim mother and after collecting the required documents, registered her name and that of her family in the ration card.
Goltekar went to her residence not once, but twice, to keep his word.
“The officer had come to my house in the morning, but I was not in then. He came back to my house again in the evening and put our names on the ration card,” an elated Calvim mother, Antonette Dias told The Goan, while thanking the newspaper and all those people who had helped her in her mission.
It may be recalled The Goan on Friday had highlighted the plight of Antonette, who had been running around for the last four years, but had failed to obtain a ration card.
The Aldona panchayat, after initially promising to help her, had also failed to come to her rescue when it mattered.
Antonette, who lost two of her daughters in the tragic Aldona bus mishap, came from an impoverished background.
On Thursday, Goltekar had told this paper, “we are there to help the people” and on Friday, he walked his talk after delivering the ration card to the distraught mother.
Goltekar is a resident of Siolim and joined the government service as civil supplies inspector in 2015.
It may be recalled six persons, including four school girls, had died in the tragic mishap when a bus went off the ferry wharf at Carona-Aldona on February 18, 2012.
Six persons “ Diana Dias (4), Elvina Dias (13) both daughters of Antonette Dias, Nagle Gracias (10) and Josephina Dias (58) from Calvim, Dayanand Hoble (55) of Mayem and Priyal Salgaonkar (10) of Nachinola “ had died in the mishap.
On Thursday, a mass was celebrated at the Calvim church in the morning, followed by a litany in the evening at the Calvim Bridge to commemorate the fourth death anniversary of the tragic incident.
