MARGAO: Water supply to Navelim and surrounding areas was disrupted for nearly 20 hours after a mobile company damaged the main pipeline supplying water to the areas.
High drama prevailed as Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro led a ‘rasta roko’ to protest over the failure of the police to register an FIR against the mobile company for damaging the public property.
It may be recalled that the same mobile company had earlier filed an FIR against the Navelim villagers after they had stopped the company workers from carrying out ‘digging under the cover of darkness’.
The Navelim MLA, aggrieved by the rampant digging work, demanded that the police register an FIR as the villagers had to go without water due to the negligence on the part of the company.
Later, he along with a few villagers resorted to ‘rasta roko’ till the police agreed to register an FIR, based on a complaint filed by the public works department (PWD).
The department officials informed that they had given information on the water pipeline alignment to the mobile company for carrying out trenchless digging for laying of underground pipes, however they deviated and damaged the pipeline late Thursday evening.
Later, speaking to reporters, Faleiro said that he arrived at the site at 9 am and demanded that an FIR be registered against the mobile company, however, even after three hours the police failed to act.
He said that the digging is being carried out rampantly, and water pipelines and underground cables are being damaged on a daily basis by the mobile company, and today’s protest is a strong signal to those carrying out the digging work that the damage to the public property will not be tolerated.
He said, “We are not against development but it should not cause inconvenience to the public. No officials were present to monitor the ongoing work which resulted in loss to the tune of lakh of rupees due to negligence.”