VASCO
Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by president Jose Philip D'Souza on Wednesday has demanded that the government immediately take steps to build the Vasco Fire building which is pending for several years.
D'Souza said that if the works on the Vasco fire station did not start in 90 days, NCP will hit the roads with the people in protest.
Speaking to the media, D'Souza said that the Vasco fire station building was declared unsafe seven years ago and the staff was asked to evacuate the building.
"Three years ago the entire building was demolished and since then there is no fire station in Vasco. It was then assured that the new fire station would be built in two years, but it is already 36 months and the work has not begun," he said.
"Today, the Vasco fire staff operate from a small room and are facing many inconveniences. Fire services are of most importance to any city across any state, but the state of the fire services in Vasco is bad. The workers are living and operating in a poor state which is not good for them mentally as well. If they are not happy, how can you expect them to give us good service? The personnel of fire services are presently confined to a room without a building, and many staff have to adjust to whatever space available as they have no choice. The operator's room and the barrack is in the small premises of one room. The place is not at all sufficient as they even have to store the fire saving equipment in that same room,'' said D'Souza.
D'Souza said that these public projects should have been taken up on a war footing. He also said that every time the project is delayed, the estimates escalate causing losses to the government.
"The state of the fire services is such because of the incompetency of the government. The first estimate for the project was 8 crores, then 11 crores and finally 15 crores, but all three times the projects were cancelled. We request the authorities and the government to immediately act and start the work. I will personally write to the CM on this project," said D'Souza.
NCP Minority president Nazir Khan said the government has fooled the people.
"It is a shame that the emergency services have been neglected. This can be costly as we have sensitive installations in various areas of the port town. Vasco is sitting on a time bomb. We have sensitive installation like the oil tanks, ammonia tanks, airport, Navy, Goa Shipyard Limited, Port, and yet don't have a highly equipped fire station with most modern facilities along with maximum firefighters and state-of-the-art, well-equipped fire brigades. Though we have a BJP MLA, BJP panel of councillors, a BJP government, yet we have to witness such a situation where nothing is done for Vasco, and Vascokars have just been fooled time and again by the government," said Khan.
