Team GPN I Panaji:
There is something undeniably melancholic about watching an old landmark take its final bow, not in a dignified retirement but in a shroud of decay. The order to evacuate Junta House within 30 days has come as no surprise to anyone who ever set foot inside those worn corridors. In truth, this building should have been demolished decades ago. But like so many things in Goa, it was allowed to limp on – an architectural relic turned bureaucratic hazard.
For years, Junta House has stood as Panaji’s tallest building, its pale facade visible from every corner of the city’s heart. Generations of citizens walked through its heavy doors to register societies, chase files, pay taxes, or simply climb the stairs, because the lift, more often than not, didn’t work.
You would wait patiently while rainwater dripped through the ceiling. You would avoid certain patches of floor where the plaster had crumbled away, revealing the building’s frailty like a wound.
And yet, in the inertia of officialdom, nothing ever changed. Leaking toilets were patched with temporary fixes. Broken windows were left as they were.
Slabs occasionally fell, sending clouds of dust into the corridors but never enough alarm to provoke decisive action. We accepted this decay as part of life in a government building, telling ourselves it would be fixed someday.
Someday never came.
The truth is that Junta House was a disaster waiting to happen. The structural audit simply put in writing what everyone already knew: a 60-year-old building with corroded columns, sagging ceilings, and no fire protection is not merely outdated – it is dangerous. It is a miracle we did not witness a tragedy that forced us to confront this reality sooner.
But this is not just a story about a failing structure. It is also about a systemic culture of neglect. Why did we allow such an important hub of administration to deteriorate to this extent? How many warnings were ignored? How many files were shuffled between departments while concrete quietly cracked overhead?
In an age when we celebrate smart cities and sustainable development, it is an indictment of our priorities that Panaji’s most prominent office complex could not secure basic safety.
Junta House was a place where the weight of paperwork was rivaled only by the burden of disrepair.
For countless employees and citizens, it has been a daily ordeal of navigating darkness, dampness, and danger.
The evacuation order is the right decision, but it comes decades late. We should have had the courage to demolish this building when the first signs of structural compromise appeared. We should have invested in modern, safe public infrastructure instead of pretending cosmetic repairs were enough.
As the last files are packed and the lights are switched off, Junta House will finally be empty—its corridors silent after years of muffled complaints and bureaucratic footfalls. In that silence, there will be a lesson we must not ignore again: old structures don’t merely age—they can betray us if we fail to respect the laws of maintenance and accountability.
It is time to bid farewell, not just to a crumbling building, but to an era of careless neglect. Let the rubble of Junta House remind us that no landmark, no matter how familiar, deserves to stand if it cannot stand safely.
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What People Say….
“We used to joke that the lift had retired before the staff did. But honestly, it wasn’t funny anymore. Every monsoon, water would seep through the ceiling. We were just waiting for something to collapse.”
Nilesh Halarnkar, Former Employee,
Registrar of Societies:
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“Junta House was never designed to be a high-rise by today’s standards. Over the decades, the lack of maintenance turned it into a structural time bomb. It should have been rebuilt twenty years ago.”
Nilesh Naik
Architect
“I have been coming here since the 1970s. In the early years, it was a proud building. Now, it feels like an old man abandoned by his family.”
Ulhas Agarwadekar,
Senior Citizen Visiting the Building for Paperwork
“We filed several reports over the years highlighting the urgent need for repairs and, eventually, demolition. But decisions were always postponed due to budget constraints and shifting priorities.”
PWD Engineer (on condition of anonymity
💬 Panaji Resident:
“Everyone knew Junta House was in terrible shape. Broken toilets, cracked beams, walls leaking—even the birds avoided nesting here.”
💬 Young Government Employee:
“It was actually scary sometimes. You’d hear bits of plaster fall. We kept our helmets near the desks as a joke, but deep down, we were worried.”
💬 Shopkeeper Nearby:
“Junta House was once the pride of Panaji. Now it’s an embarrassment. Maybe finally tearing it down will make room for something safer.”
💬 Civil Society Activist:
“This evacuation is necessary, but it is also a lesson. We must stop normalising decay in public buildings. It costs lives.”
