Remember Sulochana Pednekar the grassroots Community Correspondent from Video
Volunteers who came in and did a short video documentary on the illegal
piggery and slaughter house in Donvaddo, Saligao?
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| Her video is now up here... |
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| Dean D'Cruz to Aaren Noronha: the flame to GenNext |
Dear Manoharbhav, Dilip and Eknath,
As a team who are
all in the same party and on the same page, we in Saligao expect much
from the 3 of you for Earth Hour 2013 and towards establishing Renewable
Energy solutions to our problematic power supply.
For a start you can switch off all non-essential lights, from
8:30-9:30 pm in the state...beginning with Saligao's church and temple exterior illumination. Surely, a combination of the 3 of you can ensure this tiny measure.
Second...slowly phase out Saligao's connection to the grid. Make this a FIRST in Goa!
Starting with the Panchayat building, all street lighting and finally public illumination switch Saligao totally to Renewable Energy
using a combination of solar, biomass and wind energy:
- Do away with the garbage
dump on our hill that is destroying our village and use all our hills
for wind turbines (windmills).
- Use all our biodegradable waste in a
biomass plant to create additional power.
- Use Saligao's solar energy to complete our electricity needs.
A combination of these 3 Renewable Energy measures will first supply
all our public and later private energy needs.
Unless
we make efforts to transform our energy production systems to 100% renewable, we
may do irreversible damage to our planet.
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| Mae de Deus Church, Saligao. |
by Community Correspondent Sulochana Pednekar
with Lara Chandni
(Saligao's sordid piggy story unfolds as a grassroots community correspondent investigates the problem with her video camera...)
In
Saligao village at Donvaddo, there is a drain alongside the road which
lies clogged with the blood and entrails of slaughtered pigs. For many
years now, the area’s local piggery has been a source of serious
emotional and material distress to its neighbours.
Aside from the insupportable stench of excreta, rotting offal and
the flamboyant disregard for any considerations of hygiene, the squeals
of dying pigs at odd hours during the day are traumatising the entire
community. This is especially disturbing in light of the
slaughterhouse’s proximity to a school. Situated only 100 metres away is
Lourdes Convent, and everyday its 1,600 young students have to
jeopardise their physical and mental wellbeing in order to attend class.
Sulochana was shocked by the very experience of filming: “Even when I
was moving around the area to record my video, the smell was
unbearable. The owners themselves live in extremely unhygienic
conditions. The drain is a breeding ground for mosquitoes; the organic
waste used to feed the pigs attracts hoards of flies and cockroaches.
Rodents also infest the area. To makes this worse, crows and eagles pick
up rotting pig entrails and spread them all over the village, putting
the whole community at risk.” Needless to say, this entire operation is
illegal.
The Goa Animal Preservation Act of 1995 lays down some very
stringent regulations for the meatpacking industry. In section 4 of the
Act it is stipulated that, "no person shall slaughter or cause to be
slaughtered any scheduled animal in any place in the state of Goa,
unless he has obtained in respect of such animal, a certificate in
writing from the competent authority that the animal is fit for
slaughter". With its qualified staff and equipment, the Goa Meat Complex
is the sole establishment which satisfies all requisites for the
scientific and hygienic slaughter of animals. It charges private meat
vendors a total of Rs. 400 for outsourcing their work.
Notwithstanding, there are at least 20–30 illicit abattoirs to be
found in the state. In January of this year, authorities intercepted a
truck transporting 42 pigs from Belgaum to Goa, and 8–10 animals are
killed daily at the slaughterhouse in Saligao. The number can rise to 25
on weekends. This routine massacre has exposed the entire neighbourhood
to various health hazards. While the worst affected are women and
children who stay home during the day or attend school at Lourdes
Convent, the situation is bad enough to trouble even a passersby.
Apart from the unsanitary and often imaginary disposal of animal
offal, the locality is plagued by other unsavoury by-products of the
business. Hotel garbage is brought in by the truckload to feed the pigs
and then left to fester and decompose before being burnt. This residual
waste often contains a lot of plastic, and the fumes emitted from its
incineration pollute the entire atmosphere. The inferno then plays
itself out to the grizzly soundtrack of pigs screaming from being
shifted or slaughtered, from 5:00am to 8:00am and then again at night.
There have been several initiatives taken up by the community to
request the owners to follow official guidelines in operating their
business. The residents even tried to enlist the help of the parish
priest in maintaining some semblance of hygiene in the area. All pleas
have, however, fallen on deaf ears. The family remains staunch in its
refusal to acknowledge its toxic effect on the environs. Through this
video we hope to attract the attention of the Health Department, so that
it can take appropriate action against the owners and put an end to
their illegal and unsanitary activities.
The demands of the residents are fairly straightforward:
- The Health Department should conduct regular inspections of the
piggery and enforce a strict adherence to government regulations. The
import and slaughter of pigs and the burning of waste must be in
accordance with the Solid Waste Management Rules of 2000.
- The Panchayat or Village Council should also inspect the
compound on a regular basis and ensure an observance of protocol through
its Garbage Sub-Committee.
- The local Panch member,
Sarpanch (Headman) and MLA of the region should ascertain that these
inspections and enforcements are carried out smoothly. Action needs to
be taken immediately and effectively at the level of the Health Ministry
and the Cabinet.
(ends)
42 Pigs Rescued In Daring Night Chase
Dear Earth Lovers, Carers, Savers!
Earth Hour 2013, 8:30 PM Saturday 23 March.
Earth Hour has grown from a
one-city initiative in 2007 to the world's largest campaign for the
planet, uniting hundreds of millions of people across 7001 cities and
towns in 152 countries and territories.
Saligao, Goa, India is one of them.
For
the last 3 years, people from other villages have joined local
Saligaokars to celebrate Earth Hour at the Lourdes Convent Open Air
Courts.
The official 2013 video
features the track "Without You" by David Guetta and Usher, providing an
upbeat soundtrack to match the celebration of this year's event across
the world.
To all you 'Earth Lovers' out there...
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| Poster |
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| Earth Hour At Lourdes Convent Open Air Courts |
Mahalaxmi Bhobe, the social worker from the government run Institute Of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB) in Bambolim has asked us to enlist the help of netters from Goa to try and locate the sister of a patient in the institute.
The patient's name is Lucy Fernandes and is around 60 years old.
Her parents were Caitan & Marie Therese Fernandes.
Her present caretaker, Francis Fernandes lives in Reis Magos.
**Lucy's sister Juliet and her husband Bernard D'Souza now live in Canada.**
They used to live in Saligao's, market area (Tinto/Khotla).
Bernard's father was a professional cook.
***Urgently needed: Lucy and Bernard's contact details in Canada.***
Kindly leave any relevant information in the comment link below.
Thanks in advance for your concern.
This is anOTHERvideo clip....
It is called 'Save Goa From Destruction', a 40 second, silent movie by a publisher named 'GoaClips'.
Says the producer: "It is a video depicting the destruction of Goa's natural surroundings if the wrong people come to power...."
This clip was made before that fateful electoral day on 2 June 2007...
It leaves you speechless to know how powerfully you can say something in just 40 seconds...without uttering a word!
Let this 40 second video scream at you!
Well, well, well...so going by the current, dysenteric 'tamasha' in the sewers of power (that is what those hallowed corridors have been reduced to) do we have the wrong people in power once again, or do we have the wrong people in power?!
Thanks GoaClip for a brilliant plea!
The Department of Geography of Smt. Parvatibai Chowgule College, Margao, Goa, in collaboration with Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Goa and Nature, Environment, Society & Transformation (NEST), Goa, will observe Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day on Thursday, 9th August 2007.
The programme for the day is given below.
All are requested to participate and show your solidarity.
Dr N N Sawant,
Co-ordinator.
One of the regular features at anOTHERgoa will be *anOTHERviewpoint*.
This time we carry an interestingly new political analysis of the latest 'tamasha' in Goa.
It is titled: Tyranny Of the Representatives.
"In Goa, the political economy of land is distorting the institutions and practices of democracy..." says the author, Delhi based Prof. Peter Ronald deSouza.
After over 10 years of www activity in Goa, someone at last realised that Alexyz needed to make the scene in cyberspace. It took Goa Sudharop - Goa's out-of-town, expat NGO - with one lone representative in the state, to recognise that Alexyz should have a website to showcase his work on the global stage.
Goa Sudharop, thanks for your sensitivity to the communication needs of those of us who are not yet IT savvy.
Alexyz is Goa's cartoonist. He really is anOTHERcartoonist in Goa. No glitz, glamour or slick high brow humour for him.
Alexyz is an earthy cartoonist. His humour is down-to-the-red-earth of Goa. It is straight out of the village and its vaddos. No subtlety. No truth hiding around the corner waiting to suddenly spring on you. No mental strain to read between the lines.
(click pic to enlarge)
(click pic to enlarge)
I have been a freelancer cartoonist for the Times of India (Goaplus) and Herald, but I have been on the back burner of late due to my hectic work...I need to devote more time to my hobby again and would cherish the opportunity of contributing to your website on a freelancing basis if permitted..
Would also like to appreciate and thank you for the great work done by you and all Saligaonetters by keeping Saligao alive through the web.
in Tabravaddo, while in neighbouring Donvaddo, residents claimed they were laid squarely on top of a network of 4 water pipes under a narrow road. No one has a clue where the cables are being laid in the rest of the village, least of all the local Public Works Department-Water (PWD) that maintains the water pipes in Saligao.
There is no one from GED on site to ensure safe procedures. When we talked to one engineer from GED, he was shocked to hear of the safety measures employed and asked us to write a complaint to the engineer looking after the 11 KVA lines in this area.
"If by mistake my worker's pick axe digs into the power cable, in a trench filled with water, can you imagine what will happen? Not only will my worker be electrocuted instantly, but every pipeline and tap in the village will immediately be charged with 11,000 volts of electricity!" (see pics showing leak caused by cable digging and emptying of trench after valves were shut)
This however does not seem to be happening at all places, as the digging contractors are refusing to dig deeper or broader to maintain the 300 mm safe distance when they come across a water pipeline. It was only when we insisted that they reluctantly installed the cables under the pipelines outside our house.
Opposite our house we had decided to jump into the trench and physically stop the work if better sense did not prevail on L&T and its local digging contractors. Some safety measures were employed like laying the cables under the pipe instead of over, as had been planned. But the safety measures are far from adequate as can be seen from the accompanying pics. We actually have a potential 'gramicide' (extermination of a whole village, where 'gram' means village!).
We spent 4 entire days to ensure that at least some semblance of safety was maintained on the cables being laid from St. Anne's Chapel to the transformer by the side of our house. Time and time again we have had to liaise between and call for common meetings between local PWD staff, digging contractors, panchayat member and L&T. And then to the extent humanly possible, we actually supervised that the maximum safe distance is maintained between the power and water lines.
