MARGAO: Ensuring that their voice is heard, a large number of residents of Loutolim village, including farmers and members of the tenant association descended in Altinho Panjim on Friday to meet the Land Acquisition Officer (LAO) for the new Borim Bridge.
The locals who are opposing the proposed land acquisition for the approach roads to the new Borim bridge and the bypass road, submitted their objections to the LAO and PWD, asking them to cancel the land acquisition notification with immediate effect as per the village gram sabha (GS) resolution.
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It may be recalled that during the recent GS, the PWD officials who were present for it had presented the proposed route of the alternative selected by PWD, which passes through the Carbot Cantor and Vatlaim khazans. “PWD has completely ignored the khazans and CRZ areas that are going to be affected if alternative 7 is pursued. The entire area under acquisition in Loutulim village is within CRZ while a large part of the area in Borim village along River Zuari is also within CRZ, but there is no mention of these massive CRZ areas. If this fact was considered, alternative 7 would have not been selected,” read one of the objections.
“There is no mention or study of the tenants associations, cultivation of paddy, fish, and vegetables, and dependence of indigenous communities. It was essential that the economic and social costs of the loss of khazans were studied before deciding and selecting the best alternative,” the villagers added.
“The acquisition procedure has been started without any environmental impact assessment. The selection of the best alternative should have been based on the least environmental impact, but this has not been done. The Consultant has not collected any data with regards to drainage, biological wealth, forests, wetlands, critical natural habitats, etc,” they stated further.
