South officials caught on wrong foot over mining bypass
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, AUG 18
The district authorities, south were caught on the wrong foot on Wednesday after they invited residents of Curchorem for talks on demarcation of the proposed four-lane alignment when the government has already kept the land acquisition process in abeyance.
Residents who had responded to the invitation of the District Collector, G P Naik came with the letter from the Revenue Department directing the district revenue officials to keep the process of the land acquisition process relating to the mining bypass in abeyance.
A resident Paresh Bhende said the meeting called by the District Collector turned out a futile exercise since there is no question of demarcation of the bypass alignment by the PWD when the government has kept the process on hold.
He, however, said the proposed four-lane bypass is only meant to satisfy the mining traffic, adding the four-lane road, if approved, will result in demolition of hundreds of houses and other structures.
“We will pursue our demand for scrapping of the four-lane bypass from Tilamol to Sanguem via Curchorem. There is no question of accepting the by-pass road”, he added.
District Collector, G P Naik, when contacted to throw light on the episode, said he had invited the residents of discussions after PWD, Div 25 applied for police protection for demarcation of land from Tilamol to Sanguem. “Before granting police protection, I wanted to hear the people on the issue and they produced on record an order of the government directing the authorities to keep the land acquisition process in abeyance”, he said.
Naik admitted that there may be administrative lacunae since he was not aware of the government’s order and made it clear that it’s now upto the government to take a decision on the acquisition of land for the proposed mining bypass.
