MARGAO: Following their meeting with Union Highway Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday, a team of PWD engineers, the bridge consultant, and other government officials visited Loutolim on Friday to interact with the farmers who are opposing the alignment of the new Borim bridge to protect their khazan fields.
Originally, the plan was for the PWD to show the locals how the government will construct the bridge and discuss the alignment, but they ended up having a long discussion with the farmers who put forward their grievances. This took place amidst heavy downpour.
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The farmers, who initially insisted that they don’t want to part with any khazan fields, showed the officials the CRZ notification that prohibits development in the eco-sensitive land. They explained why the khazans are unique and stated that it will not be conducive for even a tiny portion of the khazan fields to be used for any type of construction for the bridge, even an approach road – no matter how much the width of the service road is reduced, or if the bridge is built on stilts. They pointed out that if one part of the khazan lands gets affected, the entire khazan ecosystem is compromised, and thousands of farmers will lose their livelihood.
They also cited the example of debris still stuck in khazan land next to the missing link road that was constructed earlier. While the missing link is not connected to the Borim bridge, their point was that it was built by PWD, and similar damage is bound to happen for the Borim bridge project.
The farmers further argued that the Central government had already sanctioned crores of rupees to strengthen the existing bridge, which has a lifespan of 20 more years, and questioned the need for a new bridge. The farmers also questioned repeated remarks made by Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira about no houses being demolished, pointing out that there are no houses at risk, only the fields. The PWD officials, who gave the farmers a patient hearing, assured them that their views would be taken into consideration. “We presented the CRZ notification to the PWD engineers and stressed the clauses which appeared to be most applicable to this project. Our farmers, mostly senior citizens and even women, stood at the site from 10.30 am onwards, only to protect the khazans, and finally left at 1.15 pm with hopes that their ancestral fields would be saved.
We are grateful that Union Minister Gadkari gave instructions for this meeting (with the PWD) to solve our problem. Based on the proceedings today, we are optimistic that the bridge may not cross our khazan,” said Albert Pinheiro, Chairman of the Loutolim Tenants Association. “There are also issues with the regional plan 2021 that has not shown our khazan lands properly, and this has become a problem because what is shown on paper with respect to the alignment is different compared to the ground reality that this alignment does cross our khazan lands,” Pinheiro added.
