PANAJI
As the ongoing ‘Smart City’ project has left several roads uneven and incomplete, the Goa Human Rights Commission has recommended the agencies to restore the roads around a residential colony at Miramar within three months.
The roads around La Campala Residential Colony, Miramar were dug for the works over a year ago prompting its resident Chris Fernandes to approach the human rights body seeking its restoration at the earliest.
The complaint filed in January 2023 alleged that the dug-up roads posed impossible challenges to him, senior citizens and differently-abled persons. Fernandes also urged the Commission to direct the government agencies to ensure that these roads are restored to their previous state on a war footing.
During the hearing, the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited submitted that all executing agencies were directed to ensure proper backfilling and till such time, to ensure the project site is well barricaded with proper signage.
A year later, in February 2024, the Public Works Department assured undertaking necessary measures and restoration activity soon after the work’s completion. The PWD is carrying out the upgradation of the sewerage network in Panaji and surrounding areas under the Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT).
Upon going through the submissions, GHRC Acting Chairperson Desmond D’Costa and Member Pramod Kamat recommended that both respondents take necessary steps at the earliest by restoring the roads around La Campala within 90 days from the date of this order, being February 14.
