Goa’s 12th taluka gets step treatment as government doesn’t arrive on peoples doorsteps
More than a year after its inception, Dharbandora is stillthe unwanted family cousin you can’t help avoiding. The rest of Goa,especially, Dharbandoras earlier “parents”, Sanguem and Ponda , give it lipservice by sending BDO’s and Sub Registrars, hand holding exercise that littleto Dharbandoras dignity as a taluka or its people who hoped that the governmentwould finally come to them. They still need to go to the government and go along distance.
Here’s the distance from Goas newest 12th taluka that wasborn on April 4, 2011. 28 kilometres to the RTO office to get your vehiclerelated work done. And 18 kilometers to the nearest police station at Kullembecause Dharbandora has only a local police outpost manned by a head constable.
Meanwhile key elements of the government that do come to thedoorstep, do so on two days a week. The block development officer, the keyfunctionary, supposed every aspect of development work in the taluka operateson Tuesdays and Thursdays, making this a two days a week taluka.
But apart from the office of the mamlatdar and the deputycollector, no other departments have been set up in the taluka.
The Dy Collector and the Mamlatdar functions from temporarypremises while the rest of the administrative services like BDO and Sub-Registrarare held as additional charges.
Similarly there are no full-fledged offices of the PWD, electricity, assistant directorate ofeducation and a police station in the new taluka. The taluka also lacks theservice of nationalized banks, courts, TCP and other crucial departments whichis must for a taluka.
“I am surprised that major government offices are still notoperational in Dharbandara taluka,” said former Revenue Minister, Jose PhilipD’Souza.
Locals naturally, wonder if they do have their taluka
“We were happy that we got a taluka. But what is upsetting is that an importantdepartment like BDO functions only on Tuesdays and Thursdays due to which mostof the panchayat work gets affected,” said Dhanbandora panchayat secretary,Amol Tendulkar.
“Dharbandora has lots of revenue land where government canset up all it’s department under one roof. There is also a need to properlyimplement all government schemes,” said Vishwanath Sangodkar, a local fromSancordem.
Clearly, Goa’s newest administrative baby has been left tofend for itself
