On Goa tour, guv learns of power & water woes

Panaji: As Goa governor P S Sreedharan Pillai toured the state as part of his Goa Grama Sampurna Yatra, he and Raj Bhavan officials noticed an emerging pattern when they interacted with locals across the state. Despite the state government’s claims about ‘Har Ghar Jal’ and adequate power supply, they received complaints about water, electricity and connectivty issues.

Pillai and his staff visited Goa’s 191 village panchayats where villagers and panchas fervently handed over their pleas into the governor’s hand. Raj Bhavan officials have now categorised the various concerns and will then hand them over to government departments for redressal.

“In most of the gram panchayats that we went across, we found that they had water problems and electricity problems and connectivity problems. In fact this was the common chorus in many of the panchayats that we visited, particularly the remote talukas of Sanguem, Canacona and Dharbandora,” said secretary to the governor Mihir Vardhan.

Since September 2021, Pillai has been touring Goa and he has interacted with 1,500 village heads and elected representatives.

Pillai also interacted with the fishing community, farmers, doctors, industrialists, tourism stakeholders and several others. Farmers have urged Pillai to intervene and ask the government to improve the irrigation network and also address the labour shortage.

“We have examined all of these problems, we have analysed them and structured them in various categories because these are prominent problems pertaining to the power department, the PWD. We have categorised all these problems and we will be taking it up with the relevant departments,” said Vardhan.

A valedictory function to mark the end of the Goa Grama Sampurna Yatra is being held on Saturday at Raj Bhavan where Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan and chief minister Pramod Sawant will be present.