QUEPEM: CM Pramod Sawant’s announcement of free water supply up to 16,000 litres per month has only rankled the 100-odd members of the Dhangar community in the Cavrem-Pirla panchayat jurisdiction.
Their houses have had neither tap water nor power supply for the past 70 years even as they rue that politicians shower them with promises only during election time.
Living in this remote forested part of Camona, Maina, they continue to struggle in primitive conditions, away from even the most basic of infrastructure. They lack proper road connectivity too, as their dwellings are located 12km from Quepem town and two km from the main road.
“The chief minister has promised free water to Goan families. This appears to be a poll gimmick as the government has failed to provide us with water for seven decades,” said Bhiru Tuko Bhavdhan, a Dhangar (Gawli) resident.
The government did try to help by constructing a well around five years ago, but the source dries up during the summers.
“No pipeline has been laid and the water from a nullah is available till January. A spring helps us tide over the crisis till the monsoons, but this is far away,” Bhagi Bhavdhan, another resident, said.
In Camona, which now has been brought under the Sanguem constituency from the Quepem poll segment since 2012, the other conditions for the Dhangar community are also pathetic.
The nearest electricity line is two km away, but no electricity poles have been erected yet. “We have survived on chimney lamps at night for more than seven decades. Solar panels installed by local panchayat in 2016 worked only for three years. Not a single bulb can be lit now, and repeated reminders to illuminate the area have failed,” said Jaya Bhavdhan, a 60-year-old woman.
The two-km-long untarred road and an uneven pathway is in a shoddy condition, hardly motorable even for two-wheelers, especially during the monsoon.
Earlier, all the families possessed goats and relied on selling their milk to eke out a living. But now, the old goat sheds are empty. “The landlords are not allowing our goats to move in their cashew plantations, so we sold them. They gave us around 500sqm of land for each household, but title documents are yet to be registered,” a local said.
Acquiring education, too, is a hurdle. A few families have sent their children to relatives’ home at Valkini, 30km away, and have enrolled them in the government school there.
