Following the story in Herald on April 3, titled “Bridge completed year ago awaits inauguration”, the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation has finally begun the hot-mixing of the approach road to the Cumbarjua-Gaundalim bridge.
It has been almost a year since the work of constructing a bridge over the Cumbarjua canal, connecting Cumbarjua and Gaundalim, was completed, but for reasons not known to the villagers, the inauguration has been delayed.
GSIDC said the bridge inauguration was delayed due to objections from the TCP and the ASI.
However, the villagers, who were earlier demanding the completion of the work on the approach road and inauguration of the bridge, are now threatening to stop the work if their demands are not met. The villagers have three demands: compensation, an access road, and the construction of culverts.
“There are around 20 to 22 farmers whose land has been taken over for the approach road, which is around 20,000 sq meters in total. However, they were being paid an amount as low as Rs 1,000, and Rs 1,500 in some cases,” said Cumbarjua sarpanch Surendra Naik.
He said that the farmers had refused to take that amount and had demanded an increase.
Secondly, Surendra said the villagers of Cumbarjua were promised direct access to the bridge, which has not been done so far, and they will have to travel far to get onto the bridge.
The third issue, he said, is that that around 65 farmers under the Vanso Khajan Association had lost their land and their fields have been divided as the bridge passes between their fields.
“As a result, it is difficult for the farmers, who have no access to the other side of the bridge/ approach road. The GSIDC and the government had promised to construct culverts, but they have done nothing till date,” Naik said.
Naik said that once the road was completed, the GSIDC will forget everything, and hence, the villagers have decided to launch an agitation to meet their demands.
Local legislator Pandurang Madkaikar said that the villagers, including sarpanch and panchayat members, met Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar over the issue and the latter has assured to resolve it.
“The CM has instructed GSIDC chairman Dr Pramod Sawant to look into the grievances of the people before inaugurating the bridge,” he said.
Madkaikar said that, accordingly, a meeting will be fixed between the villagers, farmers and the GSIDC soon to sort out the issues.
“It will be a great injustice to the people if the bridge is inaugurated without compensating them or looking into their demands, and hence, we have met the chief minister, who has assured to look into it,” Madkaikar said.
Efforts to contact the GSIDC proved futile. The questions for the corporation were sent through their PR agency on April 5, but they failed to revert on the issue.
