Need for auction, upkeep of sluice gates to be streamline: Congress

SALIGAO: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) has raised concerns over the haphazard maintenance of sluice gates in the state. Congress has demanded that the auction and maintenance of sluice gates needs to be streamlined.
They also demanded that the 2018 order cancelling the auction of sluice gates should be revoked. The order had been passed in order to verify the stability of bunds against a backdrop of illegal pisciculture.
“The income obtained from the auctioning of sluice gates should ideally go to the Tenants Khazan Association so that the farmers can benefit from it,” Porvorim Congress block president Shankar Phadte said.
He also spoke about the menace of anti-social elements who access the sluice gates, drinking there and break the bottles.
GPCC further said the failure of authorities to maintain the sluice gates and the bundhs has resulted in destruction of crops. “Many bundhs have been destroyed and the mangroves dead. Goa’s farming and fishing culture is being destroyed and the government is further escalating the crises by not maintaining the bundhs and stopping the auction of the sluice gates,” Phadte said.