SANVORDEM: It has been two years since the old bus shelter at Dhade, Sanvordem collapsed. The pleas of the locals to erect a new bus stop fell on deaf ears. The locals approached the panchayat and the local MLA Ganesh Gaonkar, but to no avail. Four gram sabha resolutions were also passed over the last two years, but no action was taken.
Over the last two years the locals had to bear the heat of the sun and the lashing rains.
Fed up of waiting for two years to get a bus shelter repaired, on Saturday few local youth, decide to erect their own makeshift bus shelter on Saturday, to lessen the woes of the village and school children.
The Atmanirbhar youth just took four wooden poles, a few sticks for rafters, and put a plastic sheet over them to create a make-shift bus shelter. They will put palm leaves over the plastic so that it does not fly.
They said the PWD and Panchayat maybe busy so they decided to take matters into their own hands to benefit the villagers especially during the rains. It was the responsibility of the local village panchayat to take initiative and pursue the matter of reconstruction of the bus shelter with the Public Works Department.
Gautam Bhandari, one of the public-spirited youth said, “We have been waiting for the bus shelter for two years. I had also raised this issue at the gram sabha. The roadside has been dug up and the people cannot stand on the road since there is lot of traffic here. The panchayat is not bothered. So we were forced to build a makeshift bus shelter to lessen the sufferings of the villagers.”
Sanket Bhandari, another local youth said, “When we raised this issue before the gram sabha they said there is need for an NOC. I don’t think there is a need for an NOC since there was a bus stop here earlier. If for two years the process of rebuilding the bus shelter has not started, how much longer should the people wait? So many of our students and senior students were suffering, so we decided to build this make shift shelter.”
Thanks to the initiative of the large heart village youth, the villagers of Dhade, Sanvordem, have a temporary bus shelter. The question is how long will they have to wait for a pucca bus shelter, constructed by the village panchayat?