THURSDAY, MAY 02, 2024
PRATIK PARAB
BHOMA: Let’s start with the voice of a threatened Bhoma villager:
“The government and elected representatives are with the poor and the marginalised only during the period when they want votes. Otherwise, how would Porvorim get a flyover worth Rs 600 crores and people from Bhoma have to face loss of shelters and livelihoods with a road cutting through their village taking lands and homes of people”- Putu Gaonkar, Bhoma local
This is a question that they have been waiting to ask the North Goa MP Shripad Naik. Shankar Gaonkar a local said, “We have spent days waiting for the North Goa MP Shripad Naik for a meeting but he never paid heed.” he said.
Bhoma residents have decided not to favour the ruling dispensation for what they call “lies and deceit” that they have faced all these years.
Last month (March 2024), the residents of Bhoma reacted to the ruling party's Panchayat Chalo Abhiyan (go to the Panchayats) and said that not a single Minister has visited their Bhoma-Adcolna Panchayat to listen to their woes concerning the main issue of NH expansion plan which they fear “will divide the village, and destroy their culture and houses”
A look back into the issue of Bhoma road widening shows how the people have been deceived by successive governments and heads of State for several decades.
The land for the road was originally acquired in 1992. There were 68 structures identified in the acquired land for the road.
After opposition, a new 45-meter-wide bypass road was proposed in 2002 and shown in the regional plan in 2010. But, even after scrapping the alignment in 2010, the disputed alignment was reconsidered in 2016 and later scrapped.
Only when the people thought that their problems were over, the villagers were shocked after the Government recently published a gazette and an advertisement in the paper, listing the names of people having houses in the town hall of Bhoma that will be removed in the road widening.
After this, the people of Bhoma have been continuously pleading, agitating and demanding the cancellation of the alignment, alleging that it is favouring the elite and not working for the betterment of the poor and the marginalised. The villagers have flayed the government and PWD for alienating them from the village where they stayed for over 200 years by planning to have a 60-meter road through the village destroying almost every house and structure in its path.
As O Heraldo has reported, In March 2024 Bhoma villagers claimed that the police had selectively targeted them by registering cases to crush their peaceful agitation against the National Highway expansion plan in the village.
The villagers asked, “How can the police register only 22 cases against locals when the entire village has raised its opposition to the highway expansion plan?”
They complained that the livelihood of 22 villagers has been affected as they have to appear for these cases.
O Heraldo spoke to Sanjay Naik, who was spearheading the agitation in March. He is also among 22 locals against whom the cases have been registered.
He recalled that on December 20 last year, the authorities visited Bhoma to survey the demarcation of trees. Around 150 locals including women and senior citizens had gathered peacefully and had sought documents with regards to the alignment of National Highway Expansion, but instead, they were detained and kept at Collem. However, later cases were registered only against 22 persons. He said that peaceful agitation to save the village from NH expansion will continue
Naik said, "If Bhomkars lose, the entire Goa and especially the people who are in the Coal transportation belt will have to face the flak. Our Rakhondaar, Goencho Saib, is looking at you. We trust our gods and the people who are out to destroy our village will teach a lesson to the tyrants," he said.
Amidst the din of day-to-day campaigning, speeches and allegations and counter allegations, during any elections, what gets missed out are the issues that people live with each day.
Some issues may be local and State issues and others deserve national attention. But even the smallest of problems can get solved if they are magnified at the highest levels. Many of them have interstate ramifications like Mhadei. Others like double tracking, involve national institutions like the railways or ports.
After the voting is fine and the results are out, what matters is who will address them as crucial issues beyond anything else. Who will not take the cover of courts or otherwise
legalise to pass the buck or avoid addressing them?
Most importantly, will a real leader be a real voice who will raise these issues and resonate the sentiment of Goans in the highest office of democracy – PARLIAMENT? This is irrespective of what gender, economic background or ideology the candidate comes from. Because Goa matters above anything else.
In ISSUES THAT MATTER, we raise yet again - you got that right – issues that matter
