MARGAO
Dark clouds have been hovering and the State has already witnessed pre-monsoon showers over the last few days ahead of the ensuing monsoons.
Sadly, the sluice gates and the water bodies damaged by the track doubling project in the villages of Guirdolim and Chandor remain to be restored, with locals fearing the worst in the coming rains, in the event the situation is not addressed on priority. Local farmers fear that the non-restoration of the tributary of the Zuari river may destroy the bandhs in the village.
As the damaged sluice gate and the water body on the northern side of the railway works are awaiting repairs and restoration, farmers not only fear the worst in the ensuing monsoons, but they also have a question or two for the Goa government “ why have the Water Resources Department not moved with alacrity to restore the water bodies and the sluice gate when the Railway Vikas Nigam Ltd had given an undertaking to the South Goa District Collector to fund the restoration work?
Inquiries by The Goan have now revealed that while the RVNL is ready to sanction the funds for the restoration of the damaged water bodies and the sluice gates, the buck has stopped at the doorsteps of the Water Resources Department.
For, the WRD had set in motion the process to take up the sluice gate and water bodies restoration as a depository work, but the ground reality has not changed for the better.
Inquiries have revealed that the WRD had floated a tender amounting to Rs 2.98 crore, to undertake the work, including improvement of waterways of the nullahs, both upstream and downstream of the Nacazana lake on both sides of the railway station, besides construction of the sluice gates in Guirdolim and Chandor.
A senior WRD official pointed out that the tender amount later came down to Rs 2.84 crore after the railways agreed to the request of the villagers over the shifting of a sluice gate.
The question that remains unanswered is why the WRD did not take up the work when the tender was floated in the last financial year. The Goan now understands that the tender file, which was sent for expenditure sanction before the contractor commences work on the project, has returned to the WRD office, Margao.
Officials in the know said the head office is believed to have asked the Margao office to send a revised proposal in the view of the work amount has now come down to Rs 2.84 crore from the original Rs 2.98 crore.
As the tender file keeps shuttling between Margao and Panjim and back, it is now apparent that work on the restoration of the water bodies and the sluice gate at Guirdolim village before the onset of monsoon is next to impossible. A senior WRD official conceded that time will not permit the commencement of the restoration work in the next few days, which was proposed and tendered last year, with the monsoons just days away.
While the WRD Margao office will be processing the file again and forward the same to the government, local farmers and residents are fearing the worst in the coming monsoons.
Guirdolim Village Bio-diversity Management Committee Agostinho Antao expressed concern that the delay in restoring the Zuari river tributary and the sluice gate would cause irreparable damage to the bandhs. “We have been knocking on the doors of the railways and the WRD to commence work on the sluice gate and water body restoration, but in vain. With the Zuari river tributary not yet restored, the rain fury may hit and damage the bunds”, Antao said.
He lamented: “We have got the railways to take up the work on the retaining wall. But, the WRD has delayed in executing work on the sluice gate and water bodies restoration”.
