WEDNESDAY, JULY 03, 2024
GAURESH SATTARKAR
SANGUEM: While for most students going to school is a pleasure, for students of Carla village in Sanguem, it is nightmare. Not because anything is wrong with the schools, but because they have to take a long and treacherous forested path, where no four-wheeler or two-wheeler can go.
Carla village is situated atop a hill in Goa’s eastern Sanguem. Despite 63 years of Liberation and Goa being known as a city state, there is no trace of development here for the people of Carla. Despite Goa being one of the most literate State, access to education is arduous.
Every day, throughout the academic year, the students have to walk for three hours, through a dreaded jungle which is also a dwelling for wild animals. It takes one hour to go downhill and two hours to climb uphill. Every day students risk their limbs since the narrow path is steep, slippery and dangerous.
Students start at 6 am, sometime under the dark, to catch the bus at the nearest bus stop at Pirla. During the rainy season, rainwater and small landslides make walking treacherous. Sometimes, due to wind, trees fall across their pathway.
In winter, students walk with the fear of attacks by wild animals. The villagers are demanding a vehicle to help students go to school safely.
O Heraldo travelled with the students to experience the arduous journey first hand.
This reporter learnt this: students, adults and senior citizens have been suffering without a road for the last over 63 years. The villagers are demanding that the govt repair the road nearest to the pathway. The villagers themselves clear the pathway after bushes block the path after rains,
Students do the journey twice a day, at 6 am to school and 2 pm after school. The road is treacherous and if they miss a step they can tumble downhill. Their legs ache with intense pain. This reporter experienced pain, while doing the journey with the students.
“Rains make the path slippery, the forest too is thick and it is difficult to get through it. The government should make a road and keep a four-wheeler in this area for the sake of the children, before building a road” Bindesh Gaonkar, a village youth told O Heraldo.
“College students finish by 5.30 pm. The buses too are few. They have to cross the forest in the dark and reach home by 7.30 pm. This is scary. Thorns poke their feet and they bleed. Trees fall during rains and villagers themselves have to cut the trees. We want the government to build a road,” Manisha Gaonkar, a parent told O Heraldo.
Manisha Dhavalikar, a student narrated, “We leave home at 6 am. It takes one hour to reach Pirla. We finish school at 2 pm and reach home by 4 pm. Earlier, we had a vehicle here. We want a vehicle."
Another student Avinash Goankar said, “If we have a fall during the rains we have to go to school wet. Sometimes trees fall across the path. This creates fear among us. The vehicle which used to pick us up stopped coming because of the bad road. We want a vehicle.”
Senior citizen Satyavati with a bag on her head and stick in hand narrated, “I had gone to the doctor. We have to walk even if we are sick. There is no alternative.”
The locals point out that prior to elections, candidates had said they would repair the road. After elections nothing happens The Cavrem Pirla KTC bus has stopped coming due to the bad road. Then there was a jeep. But it stopped coming because of the bad road. So students are resigned to their fate of climbing the treacherous hill.
