News: TOI
Pics: Kalakruti - Daijiworld Media Network Goa
Margao/Panaji, Jun 8: Strong winds, heavy showers, floods, slippery roads and reduced visibility had disastrous consequences on day one of the monsoon. The 121.8 mm of rainfall that hit Goa not only threw the administration out of gear, in four separate incidents people lost their lives.
At 4.30 pm Saturday 65-year-old Babuso Salgaonkar from Siolim died on the spot after his four wheeler had a head-on collision with a Kadamba Transport Corporation’s (KTC) goods carrier near the Pilar mosque. Jude Rodrigues (40) from Orlim was killed when his motorbike banged into the compound wall opposite the Assolna church. In Raia, a truck turned turtle and hit pedestrian Arnalda Barbosa (60) who died immediately and late Saturday night an unidentified woman in her late fifties was killed by a bus heading to Margao from Verna. The bus was carrying employees of a factory at the industrial estate.
While there were no details available on the three deaths, Agacaim Police Inspector Vishwesh Karpe said that deceased Babuso Salgaonkar was proceeding from Vasco to Siolim with his daughter Priya Gaonkar and grandson Kalpesh in his Maruti Zen. When passing by Pilar at around 4.30 pm the car hit the KTC vehicle and Salgaonkar sustained severe injuries and died on the spot.
The KTC driver is absconding, police said. “We will be writing to the road transport office to suspend the driver’s licence,” Karpe told TOI. Priya and Kalpesh are undergoing treatment for injuries at the Goa Medical College, Bambolim.
Meanwhile, in Margao, the inefficiency of the Public Works Department (PWD) came to the fore on Saturday as sewage was found flowing out of the drainage system in at least two places near the old market.
The sewage water was found overflowing through the inspection chambers and residents had bear the stench of garbage throughout the day. Residents of the locality said that a similar situation occurred last year as well, but the authorities were yet to remedy the problem. Resident Carmo Pegado said, “The smell is unbearable and the sewage water keeps on accumulating right in front of my house. The problem threatens to pose a health hazard as the sewage water flows into the nullah that eventually finds its way into the river Sal.” Efforts to get a statement from the PWD proved futile.
The subway at Comba built at a cost of over Rs 2 crore and inaugurated with much fanfare by the chief minister recently was out of bounds for two wheelers owing to water logging inside the subway for the second consecutive day.
The administration was kept on its toes. Though no major calamities were reported at any of the control rooms at the taluka headquarters, the control room at Margao was reportedly flooded with monsoon related complaints.While a part of a compound wall of a residential house near the Apollo Victor hospital gave way owing to heavy rains, a tree crashed on a house belonging to one Santosh Morajkar at Colmorod, Navelim, though no casualties were reported.