TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: The deadlock over the use of Cuncolim industrial slag for the Nuvem bypass continued for the second day on Thursday, with Nuvem MLA Mickky Pacheco making point blank clear to the district and PWD authorities not to use the slag in the Nuvem fields for road construction.
Senior PWD officials will now take up the matter with the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday morning to break the impasse, fearing slow down in the land filling work.
District Collector N D Agrawal along with senior PWD officials and the PWD contractor Cleofacio Dias descended at Mickky’s office on Thursday evening in order to convince him that the industrial slag was non- polluting. The Collector produced before the Nuvem MLA the high court order, besides documents certifying that the industrial slag is non-polluting and can be used for road construction.
The Nuvem MLA, however, remained unmoved and told the officials in no uncertain terms not to use the industrial slag for road construction. “The officials contended that the slag was used for the filling at the Assolna-Cavelossim bridge. But the conditions at Assolna and Nuvem are different. Here, the road is passing through cultivated fields and people fear that the pollutants may find its way in the fields and the nearby river,” Mickky said.
Given the situation, the PWD contractor Dias told the PWD officials that it would not be possible to complete the work within the deadline since he would have to now scout for mud. Work, however, has not stopped on the bypass as the contractor has been also using mud for the land filling.
