With the BJP government failing in its promise to repair the potholed roads in Margao before Ganesh Chaturthi, the festive day brought no cheer to the locals, who were forced to go on a bumpy ride on the bad roads to visit their near and dear ones. It wasn’t a smooth drive or ride for the residents in the commercial capital while taking the idols of Lord Ganesha to their houses for veneration.
It’s an irony that the BJP government in the State did not honour its promise to get the roads repaired before Chaturthi. It may be recalled that while briefing media persons on August 20, BJP spokesperson Sharmad Raiturkar had thanked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for heeding to the request to get the roads repaired before Chaturthi and the repairs of some road portions were carried out on August 23 and 24.
A short stretch in front of Grace Church and the one between Margao Municipal Council building and Longuinhos Restaurant were repaired while the others were not even touched. Ironically, even the roads, which were repaired, have now developed potholes and the situation is worse than earlier.
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Sharmad admitted that the PWD and its contractor undertook road repairs only to fool the people and said no repairs were actually done. He promised to take up the matter with the party hierarchy once the Ganesh celebration is over. Margao Municipal Council acting chairperson Tito Cardoso said there was absolutely no planning when the road repairs were carried out. “They should have used the dry spell in between to carry out the work but that was not done,” he said.