PANJIM: Though the State Government trumpets about its disaster preparedness, the State can hardly claim to be prepared for any disaster, even if it happens as close to Panjim as the Mandovi River.
In a shocking revelation, a body which was floating in the river at 5pm onward could only be recovered at around 9pm on Friday night. From 6pm till 9pm the Old Goa Fire Services which were summoned at the place where the body was floating, ie. Near the Patto Ribandar under construction jetty, just watched and waited for the high tide to bring the body ashore.
Fire personnel informed that the Panjim Fire and Emergency Services boat had been requisitioned elsewhere. The Coastal Police boat too had some issues. The Old Goa Fire Services themselves do not have a boat so they requisitioned a boat from Ponda, which is about 32 kilometres away.
Social Activist Mariano Ferrao narrated that around 5 of 5.15pm he saw the news that the body was floating near the under construction Patto-Ribandar jetty. They removed the body at around 9pm or 9.30pm. I am baffled at our system. What can we say about our disaster management system? The burden is always put on the Fire and Emergency services. Under disaster management, cant there be a coordination between the Fire and Emergency services, the Coastal Police and the Coast Guard. What will happen in case of a major emergency, God forbid? We do not see any activity or rescues by the Coastal Police. If anything happens they call the Navy. This is baffling”
Bablo Majik, Leading Fire Fighter, Old Goa Fire Services stated that he got a call from the Police control room at 5.50pm that a body was floating near Ribandar. “We reached here within 10 minutes. The body was midstream so we could not retrieve it. We called the Panjim FES but they said they vehicles has gone to Porvorim for Bandobast, so we could not get their boat. So we called the Ponda station and brought a boat from Ponda. Prior to that the Coastal Police boat came but it was not possible for their boat to reach the body. So then we retrieved the body with the help of the boat brought from Ponda.”
The press questioned when there are so many fire vehicles with the Panjim FES why did they not respond? Bablo Majik could not reply to the question and said the (one) vehicle was at Porvorim bandobast, so we called for the boat from Ponda. Media pointed out that the Panjim FES is just 3 kms away and they had to requisition the boat from Ponda, 32 kms away.