There’s an interesting relationship between governmentprojects and slums in Margao. For every project taken up and completed by thegovernment, the population of the city goes up. The new additions to the city?Slum dwellers.
The construction of the recent Collectorate building hasgiven rise to 100 odd slums, located behind the almost complete building. Setup in 2007, the slums house over 400 workers including, two makeshift shopsthat sell groceries.
A rise in population is not the main issue. What isdisturbing is the increase in garbage, sewage and public defecation in thearea. The lack of general hygiene in the area alarms residents, as does the noisefrom the ongoing landscaping. “These workers continue working through the nightwith metal cutters disturbing the locality, especially children who areanswering exams,” said Nisha Pereira, a resident from Danvodem.
The slums behind the New Colectorate had come under scannerof the health authorities, since 2011. In fact the then Health Officer, DrGeeta Kakodkar had stalled the work on the project during the monsoon, as themigrant workers had flouted health rules. “We have kept our staff at the siteto screen these 400 plus workers. Our staff monitors their blood samples andensure that their health cards are updated,” said Sanjay Dalvi, health officer,attached to the Margao Health Center. “We also undertake spraying in the areafor fear of malaria epidemic and continuously penalize these workers throughfines for flouting sewage rules. We hope they are evicted immediately,” thehealth officer said.
MVR constructions bagged the contract to build the NewCollectorate and New District Hospital and have now been awarded the contractto renovate the Fatorda stadium for the Lusofonia Games. MVR CEO, PandurangKantak agrees that the slums have become an issue, stating, “We have sizeablenumber of workers at the site and we will be dismantling the makeshift homes ofthese workers and moving them to the Fatorda stadium.”
This doesn’t take care of the problem however. Local MLA,Vijai Sardesai pointed out that MVR constructions failed in their CSR duties.“The contractor has failed to take care of his workers’ hygiene and should befined by the municipality for flouting rules,” Sardesai said.
Meanwhile, Chief Officer, Sandya Kamat said that she wasunaware of the slums near the new collectorate building and would have to checkwhat rules were applicable in the Municipality Act to evict the migrants. Shepromised to look into the matter.
Government efforts to solve the burgeoning slum issuehaven’t always succeeded. During the construction of the Ravindra Bhavan andAna Fonte Gardens, similar slum colonies came up in Margao. The then governmenthad to then pay heavy compensation to the slum dwellers. While slums at AnaFonte were demolished and the inhabitants evicted post their compensation, theslum dwellers at Ravindra Bhavan are still waiting for their day in court.
Some of the people living in the slums at the newCollectorate building have reportedly availed of ration cards and voter idsduring the last Assembly elections, begging the question as to what needs to bedone to stop this slum menace from taking over land from the city.
