Daijiworld Media Network- Mapusa

Mapusa, Sep 5: While Mapusa’s bustling Friday market continues to attract people from across Goa, the town’s darker side remains largely unspoken — the unchecked rise of sprawling slums around Khorlim. The largest of these, Ghateshwar Nagar, along with settlements such as Ganganagar, Shantinagar, Ektanagar and Satingawadi, paint a contrasting picture of concrete homes rising amid poor sanitation, open defecation, and rising crime.

Spread across comunidade land, these habitations took root between 1998 and 2006 and expanded under political patronage. Locals and observers alike point to the late deputy chief minister Francis D’Souza, who represented Mapusa for five consecutive terms until his demise in 2019, and now his son, incumbent MLA Joshua D’Souza, as having benefited electorally from the concentrated slum vote bank.

“These slums were encouraged in exchange for votes. The funds from the National Slum Redevelopment Programme could have resolved problems, but no proactive measures were taken,” alleged municipal councillor Shashank Narvekar.

Today, Ghateshwar Nagar and Ganganagar together host a population of over 1,500, with 40% comprising migrants from Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. While many houses are now concrete, basic facilities remain scarce. Despite Mapusa being declared open defecation free (ODF) in 2013, several homes in the hillside settlements still lack toilets. “Ambulances can’t reach our lanes. Patients are carried to the main road. This is our daily reality,” said resident Aarti Arolkar.

Residents acknowledge that the areas have electricity and water supply, but toilets remain inadequate. “We have applied for temporary house numbers to improve our conditions, but nothing has been allotted yet,” said Mohsin Sheikh of Ganganagar.

Alongside poor sanitation and garbage mismanagement, the slums have also emerged as hotspots for criminal activity. Drug peddling, prostitution, and gang violence have been reported. In one incident last year, a 22-year-old labourer from Uttar Pradesh was grievously injured in a knife attack at Ghateshwar Nagar. Police have also seized narcotics in the area, but “cases are often registered quietly to prevent the issue from spilling into the public domain,” Narvekar claimed.

The juxtaposition is stark: Mapusa’s development boom on one side, and Khorlim’s mushrooming slums weighed down by neglect and crime on the other, leaving the ward caught between rapid urban growth and political inaction.