Team Goemkarponn
CANACONA: High drama unfolded at the Polem border check-post on Friday afternoon when agitated members of the Canacona Congress frontal committee, led by party leader and candidate Janardhan Bhandari, blocked the entry of heavy, overloaded and over-speeding trucks into Goa.
The protest was aimed at drawing the government’s attention to the menace of trucks plying along the narrow and accident-prone NH-66 stretch between Polem and Margao. Locals say the situation has worsened ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities.
Bhandari said the Congress committee had submitted a memorandum on August 12 to various authorities demanding a ban on over-speeding and overloaded vehicles on the Canacona-Margao road. “Even after 8–9 days, the authorities failed to act, forcing us to take to the streets,” he said.
Soon after the blockade began around 11:30 a.m., Canacona Police Inspector Harish Raut Desai and Mamlatdar Gajesh P. Shirodkar rushed to the site and engaged in intense discussions with the agitators. After giving strong assurances of action, they convinced the protesters to call off their agitation.
Later, a meeting was convened in the chamber of the Deputy Collector with various government authorities to work out an immediate solution.
Several local Congress workers including Sidharth Bhandari, Sarvanand Komarpant, Vaishal Pagi, Gurudev Desai, Mithun Pagi, Cleston Viegas, and others joined the protest.
