PANAJI
Aam Aadmi Party volunteers on Tuesday gheraoed the Assistant Engineer of Public Works Department at Mapusa over the water scarcity faced by people of Siolim and prevailed upon him to visit Siolim on January 6, at 7 am along with his officials to check the water supply condition in the village.
AAP delegation led by AAP Goa convener Rahul Mhambre and AAP Siolim co-orindator Pujan Malvankar pointed out that the water supply pipeline has not been changed for years even though the number of connections has increased significantly.
They further pointed out that the many hotels in the area are supplied water through a dedicated pipeline by diverting the water meant for domestic consumers and lamented that as the hotels are drawing too much of water the domestic consumers are suffering and not getting proper water supply.
“People of Siolim have been struggling because of lack of water and this government has paid no heed. The villagers have come together to pressurise the authorities to do the work they are employed for. Hotels are given all the water supply they need but Siolkars left struggling. The current BJP government is very inefficient and the local MLA too doesn’t seem interested in the welfare of Siolkars.”
As the Assistant Engineer kept stating that he did not know the problem as he has recently taken charge, the locals asked him to immediately stop the water supply to the hotels otherwise threatened to stop the supply themselves.
The Assistant Engineer agreed that the pipeline has not been changed for the last around 30 years and further said since he had taken charge only a month back he needs time to study the matter. However, he said the estimates have been prepared and sent to the senior officials and the file had even gone to the chief minister.
“The chief minister will do nothing because he is anti-Goan and only works for his masters in Delhi. Siolkars deserve better!” said Rahul demanding that the engineer acts promptly on the matter and gets the file approved by whoever is sitting on it at present.
The locals were also quite agitated to note that many of the staff members were not present on their desks and had literally abstained from work without seeking leave or being marked absent and they rejected the PWD suggestion of supplying water by tankers.
