‘Saligao-Pilerne road being deliberately kept unrepaired, manhandled at PWD office’

Calangute: Saligao Congress workers were on Thursday allegedly manhandled by police who were trying to prevent them from entering the PWD office at Mapusa to serve senior officials a memorandum about the “pathetic condition” of roads in Saligao.The memorandum by the Saligao Congress block committee alleged that the Saligao-Pilerne road is being purposely kept unrepaired, affecting industries in the industrial estate so “that bribe is offered to the MLA and department” to make it serviceable.North Goa district Congress president Virendra Shirodkar was among those allegedly manhandled by police. In the melee, Shirodkar’s shirt was torn. Congress workers said none of the senior PWD officials were present in the office to address their grievance.

“We came here to give a memorandum, but the police did not allow us inside. We‘re not terrorists,” said Shirodkar. “Most of the roads at Saligao are unmotorable. The MLA had told us that the roads would be repaired before the monsoon. There are daily accidents. If somebody is dying, even an ambulance will not be able to reach them,” said Atul Naik, Saligao Congress block chief. Senior citizens have been the most affected as all the buses from Mapusa to Betim have been diverted onto the Chogm road at Sangolda, Congress workers said.

“There is fear in the mind of people using the road from Saligao to Pilerne as they do not have proper road to drive or walk. Most of the people are engaged in tourism-related businesses, running hotels, guesthouses, and restaurants. As tourism contributes to Goa’s economic growth, the pathetic roads will send a wrong message to the world,” the memorandum states. “The road from Saligao to Pilerne estate was repaired only three months ago after it was dug and now, it has been dug again. It looks like they (govt) only want to take tenders for the same road and waste taxpayers’ money,” Naik said. The road has been closed for traffic after it was dug and then washed out with the pre-monsoon deluge recently, causing massive disruption of traffic.