PARRA: The farmers of Parra and Verla Canca are unhappy with the decision of the High Court to permit the Electricity Department to carry on the work of erecting poles in order to lay the 33 KVA high tension lines from Thivim to the Nagoa sub-station. The farmers are unhappy as their cultivable land is being destroyed and lost at the same time. To erect these poles holes are being dug in the fields and hence the tractor will have problem while ploughing and at the same time it is unsafe for farmers as this is a high tension line. Few metres away from the existing 33 KVA line this new one is being placed and hence farmers will lose few metres of their land in the process.

An angry farmer, Casmiro De Cunha lamented that the government is giving all false promises and assurances to the farmers. “The government should not assure us any assistance in farming or provide us with any scheme. They only talk about farming but do nothing for the fields and farmers. We are cultivating our fields but finally it is being destroyed by them,” he said.

Another farmer said that they are deeply disappointed as the court has given a verdict contradicting the law created for good governance. “If the government can obtain licences and permissions after the completion of work than what is the point of the rules, thereby encouraging illegal activities to get legalised. All the laws made are applicable only to the common man and not the government. Unfortunately we did not get justice in our plea,” she said.

A local from Parra, Roland Da Cunha told Herald that these people claim this is a temporary solution and once the underground cabling is done one set of parallel line poles would be removed.

“Instead of underground cabling they are taking us five years back by pulling the lines over head. This work is definitely not benefiting the people of Parra and is being done for Calangute and Candolim. They did the work forcefully by sending in a large force of police personnel,” said Roland.