MARGAO
After Benaulim, traffic signals installed in the rural areas of Salcete have come under opposition from local residents as they demanded the immediate removal of the signals.
While the government has decided to roll out the traffic signals and AI cameras on July 1, former Minister and Betalbatim resident Mickky Pacheco has set June 30 as the deadline to dismantle and remove the systems, warning of widespread public unrest and direct community action if the deadline is ignored.
Former MLA Adv Radharao Gracias has also questioned the installation of traffic signals at Betalbatim, saying the signals and AI cameras are installed to benefit the private party, who has been awarded the contract to issue motor vehicle challans.
Launching a blistering attack against the Transport Department over the arbitrary installation of automated traffic signals and artificial intelligence (AI) surveillance cameras across rural pockets of the State, Pacheco condemned the implementation at the Betalbatim junction along the Major District Road (MDR) as a master class in bureaucratic absurdity designed solely to generate revenue by penalising local villagers navigating their daily lives.
He lambasted the complete absence of scientific road mapping and structural logic behind placing a rigid, automated traffic signal at the core of the Betalbatim junction.
Highlighting the ground reality, Pacheco noted that the junction sits within an immediate, tight radius of critical community institutions, located at mere ten metres from a government primary school, twenty metres from the local Panchayat Ghar, twenty-five metres from the Betalbatim Church, and directly adjacent to local dining establishments. “The natural concentration of these institutions inherently slows down and regulates the flow of traffic to a perfectly safe and normal pace, making an artificial electronic signal entirely redundant and counterproductive,” he said.
He threw an open challenge to the State, declaring that if the government lacks the initiative or funds to construct a basic roundabout, he is fully prepared to personally finance and construct a modern, aesthetically pleasing roundabout in memory of his late father, Joao Francis Pacheco, provided the administration grants the necessary legal permissions.
The former minister expressed deep shock that the automated AI cameras are being weaponised to extract fines from rural residents moving within a micro-radius of their homes.
