MARGAO
Conceding that people displaced by highway and road expansion are awaiting rehabilitation for years, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral on Friday said the government would soon come with an Ordinance empowering the Chief Architect, PWD to act as a single window system for the rehabilitation of the displaced people.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of Lions Club’s e-waste collection drive at Margao on Friday, the PWD Minister said he would bring a Bill in the coming session of the Goa Legislative Assembly empowering the Chief Architect to act as a single window system to clear rehabilitation of persons displaced by road and highway works.
Citing the instance of Comba ring road, Cabral said around 12-13 families were displaced by the project when their structures were razed down to make way for the ring road. “These families are still being temporarily housed at the Housing Board quarters and the PWD is paying their rent for the last several years,” he said.
He added: “We have found out that rehabilitation of the displaced people is stuck up when the file goes to the Town and Country Planning Board for approval. It takes huge time for the file to return back as a result of which the rehabilitation goes haywire. To do away with these issues, the Chief Architect will be the nodal office and the single window system to clear the files for the rehabilitation. This practice was followed in the past and the government is keen to revert back to the system.”
Saying that an Ordinance will soon be issued to this effect, the PWD Minister, who also holds the Law portfolio, said a Bill will be tabled in the coming session of the Goa Legislative Assembly to make it a law.
Cabral said the PWD has given final touches to the rehabilitation of the displaced families from Comba at the acquired land admeasuring 7,000 sq mtrs.
Now, PWD mulls app to help plug water pipeline leakages
MARGAO: After the Pothole App, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral has now mulled an App to help plug water pipeline leakages and save precious water from going wastage in the State.
Making a fervent plea to the citizens to participate in activating the Pothole App by clicking photographs of potholes and uploading the same on the App, Cabral said the system will automatically take care of the potholes.
Cabral said the App on water leakages will help plug the same and save water going waste through the water lines.
He said around 35-40 per cent of the water goes unaccounted in view of the leakages on the water lines. “Once the App is launched, any citizen will be free to click a photograph of the leaking water pipelines and upload the same on the App, saying the system would send PWD staffers to plug the leakage,” he said.
