MARGAO
Will the government compensate the loss of food items, including fish, meat and poultry for want of power supply during the last three days caused by the Cyclone Tauktae, more so in the State countryside?
To beat the ongoing Covid lockdown, many households have claimed they had stacked these food items in their refrigerators. With the strong cyclonic winds leaving the power infrastructure devastated, leaving many areas in the villages without power, people claim the food items stored in the freezers have turned stale for want of power supply.
The question of compensating the individual households has come to the fore, with citizens questioning their MLAs and revenue officials whether people who have suffered loses by way of food items will also be compensated.
Cuncolim MLA Clafacio Dias had to grapple with the query of compensation over the loss of the food stacked in the refrigerators. “Some people have raised the question of compensation as they claimed their food stuff stored in the freezers have been destroyed for want of power supply. I had no answer to these questions,” he said.
Some of his counterparts from Salcete countryside had to face this question from their electorate as the people have sustained not just damages to houses, roof tiles, but the absence of power supply let their food items in the freezer stale.
When this question was posed to revenue officials in the South Goa district collectorate, they pointed out that they too had received such queries from citizens. “Right now, we are preparing the preliminary estimates of major losses sustained by people, including damage to their houses,” a revenue official said.
