Team Herald
PERNEM: In a bid to resolve issues pertaining to land acquisition for the expansion of the highway passing through the Tamboxem-Mopa-Ugavem panchayat, officials from the National Highway Authority of India, along with PWD officials and local MLA Pravin Arlekar, met with locals, who have expressed apprehension over losing their shops and homes for the project.
Many of the affected villagers attended the meeting, and the land acquisition officials tried to placate them by explaining that they had to sacrifice some land to improve infrastructure in the area, and that they would be compensated.
The villagers countered that many have not received compensation for the land they’ve given up earlier and demanded separate compensation for their fruit-bearing trees that were felled to make way for the highway. Land Acquisition officer Chandrakant Shetkar said that they would get compensation if they produced proper ownership documents to claim the same.
The villagers also demanded an underpass at Ugvem, as the highway traverses their village, separating their fields from their residences, and with each farmer needing to cross the highway at least twice a day, an underpass was necessary for safety reasons. The officials told the villagers that there was no provision for a service road, due to difficulty in acquiring land for the same.