SALIGAO: Taking cognisance of the waterlogging at Guirim, chief minister Pramod Sawant on Thursday inspected the area along with officials and said that short-term as well as long-term measures would be taken up to resolve the issue.
He was accompanied by MLAs Glenn Ticlo (Aldona), Jayesh Salgaonkar (Saligao) and Joshua D’Souza (Mapusa), zilla panchayat members, sarpanchs of neighbouring villages, senior officers of PWD, WRD and agriculture.
“It won’t be wrong to say that is partly a man-made issue,” said the chief minister after seeing both sides of the highway inundated.
As a short term measure, Sawant said that he has instructed PWD and WRD to unclog the water channels. He said that there are many factors for the flooding, including dumping of mud and debris by the contractor undertaking the highway expansion work, land-filling by some people in the vicinity, besides heavy rain and tidal effect.
The chief minister said he read news reports on the flooding in Guirim. TOI has highlighted the issue over the past three days, including a front page photo which showed that one cannot distinguish between the highway and the fields. Neighbouring villages are cut off from each other due to the flooding. While some locals said that the area gets flooded every year during heavy rain, however, this time, the situation is much worse.
As part of the long-term measures, Sawant said he has directed officers to conduct an inspection of the river so that desiltation can be carried out to prevent such instances in the future. He also asked the agriculture department to assess the damage caused to cultivators.
The chief minister expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to people owing to the flooding.
“This is a catchment area, so water flows down from Parra, Socorro and Guirim, and accumulates at this spot. Hence, the tributary of Tar river needs to be dredged. This will help prevent flooding at this area,” said Salgaonkar, adding that he held several meetings in the past to resolve the issue, including when he was ports minister.
He also said that another reason for the flooding could be due to the illegal land-filling. There were heated arguments as Gurim locals questioned the Saligao MLA over the flooding at the Namoshi junction.
In the past two days of heavy rainfall, roads in Guirim, including the stretch road from Namoshi junction to the Guirim panchayat have been submerged.
