ROQUE   DIAS | NT

Rachol

The  island  village  of Rachol lacks sewerage system, good  road connectivity, and a facility for paying  electricity bills.

The villagers, who are mostly into fishing and farming, have to spend almost a day to make payment towards their power bills at the electricity department office.

There is also a garbage disposal issue in the village; the  previous panchayat body and the present one  tried their best to resolve the issue, but due to the lack of space they did not succeed in putting in place waste collection centres.

The density of houses in the village, especially, at the Ilha de  Rachol leaves no scope for laying a sewerage line, and as such, most of the sewage is released into the water bodies and  in the nearby  paddy fields.

The village does have the community toilets, but are not sufficient  to meet the need.

“We  urge the government to make arrangement at the sub-centres at the village level  to pay the electricity bills. Many of us do not know how to make payment  online,” said a middle-aged woman.

Interestingly, this village  was adopted by the  former Rajya Sabha  member the late Shantaram Naik  under Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY). A source informed that  “the MP  Naik  spent  around  Rs 45 lakh  on the village development.  Another  Rs 4 crore worth works were proposed for the village, which include the community hall, health centre,  protection walls to the paddy fields, underground cabling, etc.”

The locals informed that a  high mast lamp was also installed  in front of  Gloria chapel, but is presently not functional.

The departments of tribal welfare, social welfare, and WRD have carried out a lot of work in the village, however, there was less attention from the directorate of the panchayats, said Jospeh Vaz, former sarpanch, under whose tenure most of these MPLADS works had commenced.

The locals lamented that Naik’s successor,  MP Vinay Tendulkar  never paid  a visit to the village.

Interestingly, when inquired about  the Lok Sabha election,  several villagers of this  tribal-dominated village preferred to remain ‘silent’.