Courtesy:NT
Pics Rajtilak Naik
Daijiworld Media Network - Goa (MB)
Panaji, Aug 7: The incessant rains lashing Goa for the past couple of days slowed down on Monday, with the state experiencing occasional showers during the day.
Meanwhile, the government announced its decision to seek financial assistance under the Central Natural Calamity Fund and further chip in with equal funds for those who are affected by the rains.
The government administration maintained that last evening, the situation was alarming, but the night had respite from the rains. “We have nevertheless put all the machinery on alert,” they maintained.
Following heavy rains, fields at Amona went under water
As a result of water crossing the danger mark level, all four sluice gates of the Anjunem dam were opened
Fire brigade personnel engaged in clearing work
Valvanti river flows fast over a bridge at Keri, Sanquelim
Rain water entered many houses at Mala, Panaji
A tree across the middle of a road at Corlim, Old Goa and caused a massive traffic jam for almost 2 hours
A scooter was crushed a tree which came down at Panaji
Fire force personnel clearing a huge tree that came down on a house at Santa Cruz
Fields at St Andre under the rainwater
Due to the heavy rain in the state, some bricks of the StAnna Church at Talaulim came down on Sunday early morning. Recently the Church had celebrated its annual feast, better known as 'Tovshachem Fest' (CLICK HERE to read about this feast). Till now the Church is in a total neglected state and no government or private organisations have shown any interest towards it restoration. The authorities concerned need to work towards restoring this old church of the 16th-century.
A huge tree was uprooted at Caranzalem
The administration also maintained that the rains, accompanied by strong winds have wreaked havoc in some parts of the state and there has been a lot of damage. The government will compensate the affected people, it assured.
As a precautionary measure, the flood gates of the Anjunem dam, located on the Goa-Karnataka border within Goa limits, were released today.
The Indian meteorological observatory, here, has predicted heavy rains continuing for the next 24 hours, with warning issued to the fishermen against venturing in the sea still continuing.
High winds and heavy rains caused severe disruption in electricity in Calangute with residents in some parts complaining of power shutdown or low voltage for over 48 hours.
While power breakdowns affected all parts of Calangute, residents of Tivaivaddo were specially affected. Power supply failed here on Saturday afternoon. Technicians did re-connect the supply in between but it has failed repeatedly since then. Electricity supply returned on Sunday afternoon but the voltage was been so low that none of the equipment could operate. The situation continued even on Monday afternoon. While the power supply problem has now worsened, residents of Tivaivaddo said that even otherwise their area is serviced by a defective transformer such that power supply in the Tivaivaddo area is never trouble-free.
Residents also lamented they had difficulty lodging their complaints either on telephone or in person. Repeated calls to the section office in Calangute evoked no response while calls to the Candolim assistant engineer’s office were met with requests to contact the Calangute section office. When some residents visited the Calangute office personally on Sunday, there was no one in the office to entertain their complaints.
In between telephone calls to the Calangute section office revealed that the office was understaffed and thus could not cope with the workload.
Severe disruption in power, intermittent supply and low voltage problems haunted other parts of Calangute since Saturday as well.
When contacted today, engineers in the Calangute section office admitted the power situation was bad in several wards like Tivaivaddo, Naikavaddo, Porbavaddo and Baga. But they also revealed that high winds and heavy rains had felled numerous coconut and bhendi trees in Calangute severing power lines at several places. They said that linesmen were fighting against time to set things right.
Engineers denied that sections of Calangute were under blackout for over 48 hours saying that the problem of low voltage and dim lights could be because of blown fuses in transformers.
Earlier report with pics: