ARPITA SRIVASTAVA | NT
MAPUSA: Traffic congestion, stray cattle menace and lack of clarity on jurisdiction of various departments including revenue department are some of the prime problems ailing people in Pomburpa-Olaulim panchayat jurisdiction. Due to lack of clarity about jurisdiction, people are forced to run from pillar to post.
Three major areas which generate revenue to the panchayat are Pomburpa, Olaulim and Ecoxim. The village is covered by two post offices and as many police stations. Pomburpa-Olaulim area comes under the jurisdiction of Mapusa police station while other side of the village consisting of Ecoxim village comes under the Porvorim police station due to which villagers are undergoing a lot of hardships.
The issue of jurisdiction of departments has been raised by villagers during gram sabha meetings. The panchayat was urged to take up the matter with the state government to bring uniformity but nothing has been done and villagers continue to suffer.
Dr Yuvraj Sawant, a resident of Ecoxim said, “Residents have to go through a lot of hardships on the legal front, postal front, geographical front with regards to land surveys and others. With regards to jurisdiction issue, after liberation surveys were conducted but nothing transpired.”
Another major problem which villagers are facing is of sanitation as the houses along the riverside are discharging their liquid and human waste into the river. The panchayat has conducted inspection and issued notice to around 55 houses not to discharge untreated waste following the NGT order.
A local resident claimed that “they are forced to discharge the waste into river as the water table is quite high in the entire area due to which water enters the septic tank as a result again tanks start overflowing so there is no other option left with the villagers.”
He further said that the government needs to come up with a permanent solution over the issue as the problem is faced by neighboring villagers also.
The beautiful villages in the panchayat jurisdiction are blessed with fields, springs and river bank. But the biggest problem is the narrow road and to make matters worse, vehicles are parked along the roadside due to which traffic congestion is caused. Besides this, villagers also face the menace of stray cattle who also move on the road causing obstacles to motorists.
Pascal Pereira, a resident of Ecoxim said, “We cannot do anything with regards to the narrow road. But the practice of vehicles parked along the roadside especially during night time should be stopped.”
He further said, “The government needs to do something about the stray cattle which are left to move around by the owners which creates obstacles to traffic movement.”
Beside the traffic issues, the issue of bad condition of sluice gate at Pomburpa has been raised at various platforms but nothing has been done. The sluice gate which is almost 12 years old has been in bad condition raising concern among the farmers. Farmers are always under fear that if due to pressure the gate breaks then entire cultivable fields will get spoiled if water enters them. The farmers have approached various departments through the panchayat but still nothing is done.
Thomas Fernandes, a local farmer blamed the authority for not taking up the annual maintenance of the sluice gate and said, “If this water enters our fields then the fields will not be cultivable.”