The #Rosto Campaign - a year long peoples’ campaign to highlight bad roads in the State was started on October 2 this year by dancer Cecille Rodrigues. Prior to the campaign, Rodrigues had released a music video called “Rosto”, to the tune of Lorna’s “Bebdo”, in which she highlighted the potholed roads especially in the capital city, and the pathetic state of the road near the KTC bus stand, which lead to the city.
As part of the campaign, Rodrigues has been wearing a t-shirt which says “#RostoCampaign - Goa deserves quality roads.” She will wear the slogan for the entirety of the campaign. Two weeks into the campaign, Rodrigues told The Goan that the response from the public has been 90% positive.
“People are noticing me wearing this t-shirt everywhere. Most people now know the Rosto song. People come forward and tell me that the song and campaign has motivated them to speak up and speak out against the bad roads,” she said.
From the feedback she has received, she said a lot of people are now putting pressure for better roads in their respective areas. “Though I started the campaign by myself, my friends have now teamed up in their own areas. Artists are getting involved in their own fields for example, photography, videography, song writing, script writing, dancing, music and video editing. Many people who use social media for their work have come forward,” she explained, adding, “Waking up Goans is not an easy task, but it is happening little by little.”
She feels that the campaign has already started yielding a few results. In her own constituency Taleigao, a very big patch of road (which was included in the Rosto song) has now been patched up. “It’s not very well done, but at least the cementing work is being done. It’s something better than nothing,” she said. Rodrigues says that while road patchwork is being done at Patto, Vagatore and Calangute, she lamented that nothing has been done about the Panjim bus stand.
She also said that the PWD giving the excuse of the monsoons for not doing up the roads is not a valid excuse as even the roads which had to be done up before the monsoons had not been done. However, she is extremely pleased that the High Court has now asked the government to undertake repair of roads by November 30, as it will ease peoples’ suffering.
