Calangute panchayat bypasses contractors to clean nullahs

Calangute: The Calangute panchayat has started desilting nullahs from the Saligao-Calangute border to St Alex Church and Agarwaddo stretch to prevent the flooding of agricultural fields during the coming monsoon.
Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira said the panchayat decided to do away with the time-consuming tendering process for the desilting works to speed up the pre-monsoon preparations. “We’ve not given the contract to anyone as was being done earlier, because the contractor used to leave the work incomplete,” he said. “The ward members know their areas, so we are giving them an earth mover and daily wage workers so they can desilt the nullahs.”
Deputy sarpanch Geeta Parab said the nullahs were desilted previously in 2012. “Because they have not been desilted since then, there is a lot of mud and bushes in the nullahs which will block the flow of water during the monsoon,” a panchayat member said. “That will lead to the flooding of the fields, making them uncultivable. Water-borne diseases will also rise.”
Sequeira said, “This time the ward members have planned ahead and started the work without waiting till the last moment.”