Team Herald
MARGAO: The work on the contentious Western Bypass has resumed much to the shock of locals from Benaulim and Mungul.
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The locals stopped the work of filling of low-lying areas with mud, which they say will have disastrous consequences. They hope for a long-term solution that safeguards their interests permanently as opposed to the short-term measures.
On Wednesday, locals from Khareband were upset that the work started yet again just after the declaration of the poll results. They demanded that this issue be raised in the forthcoming Assembly session
They sought to know why the government appears to be hell bent on going ahead with filling up the low-lying areas to construct the road and not build a flyover on elevated stilts.
They said the alternative suggestion for the bypass to be built on stilts, at least from Seraulim to Mungul, was recommended by the expert environment committee formed to look into the issue.
Santan Pereira, a resident argued that the reason cited by the government in the past is lack of funds.
“The government is talking about lack of funds but imagine people’s sufferings. Each year this place gets flooded. People will lose their place of living and the poor farmers their livelihood. There will be mass evacuation here when the floods occur. These are wetlands and flood-plains. Everything will be destroyed,” said Pereira.
Pereira alleged that crores of rupees can be spent on buying MLAs and political horse trading and that the cost of building the flyover on stilts is peanuts compared to that.
Locals emphasised that the cost of constructing the flyover on stilts will be less than what the government would have to incur when disaster strikes.
Gilbert, another local said people have died due to flooding in the area in the past and wonder what will happen if their sensitive area is filled with mud due to greater flooding in the future.
“Some of these houses are constructed with mud. They won’t be able to withstand the force of the water and will collapse. Does the government want to kill us in the name of development? When it floods here, people can’t travel from one side to the other. So the only solution is for this western bypass stretch to be built as a flyover,” said Gilbert.
The residents questioned where the mud has been brought to fill the fields and how the construction material and slag could spill into neighbouring fields.
