05 Mar 2024  |   06:45am IST

BYPASSED! Bhoma villagers stand on the highway of neglect

Remind ministers that they have been elected to protect Goa; label the ‘Panchayat Chalo Abhiyan’ of the ruling party a lip service; accuse the ministers of neglecting their village

Team Herald

BHOMA:  Raising fears that the NH expansion plan will divide Bhoma, and destroy their culture and houses, the residents alleged that the government’s ‘Panchayat Chalo Abhiyan’ is lip service and accused the ministers of neglecting their village.

The villagers reminded the ministers that the people had not elected them to destroy villages but to save Goa and vowed to fight back and protect their village from destruction.

The residents of Bhoma are upset that not a single Minister has visited their Bhoma-Adcolna Panchayat to listen to their genuine grievances concerning the main issue of NH expansion plan which they fear will divide the village, and destroy their culture and houses.

The locals recalled that before this, they had even staged an agitation in 2010 when the then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had promised bypass.

Sanjay Naik, a resident of Bhoma said, “If Chief Minister Pramod Sawant claims that the Bhoma issue is solved then he should come here and inform the villagers.”

 Naik said the four ministers in Ponda taluka have failed to deliver justice to Bhoma locals. This shows that the ‘Panchayat Chalo Abiyan’ is just for lip service.

He emphasised; “The ministers have neglected the issues affecting Bhoma village. We are only asking for a bypass, but somewhere we are being bypassed by the government and ministers to avoid our issues. If the government had proposed three plans and one was approved then show us all the plans." 

"Why has the once-scrapped NH expansion plan at Bhoma been confirmed by authorities yet again? Show us alignment plans that were proposed for bypass from Hill and fields proposed to the Central Government and the date of their rejection,” he said.

“We demand the details of the plans proposed by the Goa Government with NH Authority of India," he said.

Accusing the Chief Minister of sidelining the Bhoma issue, he demanded that Sawant explain what has been done to save Bhoma. If only two houses are going to be destroyed then government should show us the expansion plan.

He questioned why can’t Union Minister Shripad Naik change the alignment. He wasn't quite expecting an answer to this.