Scrap and abandoned vehicles make their way along the Margao ring road stretch near the Cine Lata area. Captured by : Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
Has the South district authorities, including the district Collector, South, and officials of the RTO, traffic police and the Margao Municipality capped the issue of abandoned and scrap vehicles spotted along the major and internal roads in the commercial capital?
Welcome to the Margao ring road running parallel to the railway tracks heading to the Cine Lata migrant colony and do not be surprised to find a number of scrap or abandoned vehicles parked along the road side.
Take note, Margao MLA Digambar Kamat had inspected the road side in question along with BJP leader Sunil Naik when the MLA quit the Congress to embrace the ruling party in September 2022. The MLA had paid his second visit to the roadside when a shop was engulfed by a massive fire. On both the occasions, Kamat’s instructions to the RTO officials and officials of the Margao Municipality and the traffic police was loud and clear “ lift away from the road side the abandoned vehicles and rid the area of the eyesore.
It’s not out of place to mention here that then district Collector, Jyoti Kumari had issued a notification before she was shunted out of office in 2022, setting a deadline of six month for the authorities to lift away all vehicles abandoned along the city roadsides.
Sadly, it’s now over a year and half since the then Collector had issued the notification followed by the inspection by the Margao MLA, but a solution seemed to have eluded the authorities till date.
No doubt, post-inspections by the Margao MLA, some of the abandoned vehicles were towed away by the concerned parties, but the fact that scrap and abandoned vehicles have again made it along the roadside suggests that a permanent solution is yet to fall in place.
Local residents pointed out that the parking of a number of scrap vehicles along the roadside has turned the area into an eyesore. “We know that a scrap yard is operating in the area. Assuming that the vehicles are brought at the site for scrap, the owner can take precaution by bringing a scrap vehicle or two at the site instead of dumping the vehicles at one time”, remarked a resident, while pointing out that the presence of the scrap vehicles have denied parking space for motor vehicle owners.
Interestingly, the stretch of the ring road from the car wash centre near Cine Lata right up to the two-wheeler bridge connecting Margao to Khareband was notified as a no parking area with the objective of getting rid of the nuisance caused by the scrap and abandoned vehicles.
The notification, however, could not be implemented after an uproar by local residents that the move will deny parking facilities for minimum 40 four-wheelers along the entire stretch.
