Team Herald

MARGAO: Chandor Cavorim villagers have appealed to local MLA Clafasio Dias to prevail upon Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar to only asphalt the road in their village without broadening it in view of the prevailing sentiments against the State Highway 8.

Clafasio specially visited the village to explain to them the problem he was facing with regards to the repairs of three stretches of roads in the village which, he said, by mistake were termed by the PWD engineers as SH8 and that the tenders were prepared during the term of his predecessor.

Dias said that the stretch of roads from Bindimoll to Savio Henriques’ house; from Savio Henriques’ house to Cotta bridge; and, from the Church to Cavorim chapel were tendered for widening and resurfacing of SH8. Incidentally, the road from Church to Cavorim chapel is an interior road and cannot be termed a highway of any sort.

Significantly as the Chandor Cavorim Panchayat had written objecting to the widening of the road and terming the road as SH8 the chief minister when the file went for his financial sanction called him and asked him for his opinion because of which he came to meet to villagers to elicit their views.

After much discussion, it was decided to have mere asphalting of the road as the present road is posing a great threat to motorists. Clafasio said he would try to convince the chief minister to only asphalt the road without widening it at all.

As the villagers also demanded that the SH8 be notified passing through their village, the MLA assured them that he would get that done too. Some of the villagers said they had no faith in anybody and while accusing the Chief Minister of seeking to blackmail them also accused the PWD of trying to grab a mile when offered an inch.

Panch Jose Pereira was castigated for demanding that compound walls of heritage houses be demolished.