Residents of Mollo-Velsao have accused the South Western Railway (SWR) contractor Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd (RVNL) of carrying out gross violations, including hill cutting and blocking a rivulet with mud that flows from a freshwater spring at Dervadae into the rivulet at Mollo, Pale Village.
Goencho Ekvott (GE) and Goenche Ramponkarancho Ekvott (GRE) have condemned these construction works.
Earlier, villagers from the traditional fishing and toddy-tapping communities reported massive hill cutting. Their houses, located just below the hillock, and the age-old stone embankments that offered protection have been completely destroyed.
Now, this area will be heavily prone to mudslides during the upcoming monsoon season, which is expected to hit coastal Goa in about a week.
Orville Dourado Rodrigues, GE Founder Member, lamented that the SWR’s quest to construct the coal corridor through Goa has inflicted untold miseries on the inhabitants of the coastal belt, particularly in Mormugao and Salcete talukas.
He said, “The free passage of the perennial freshwater spring water at Dervotae, which used to feed the rivulet below the hillock, has been blocked near the twin culvert to facilitate the transportation of raw materials and heavy earth-moving machinery, causing the water to become turbid. This particular place had a forest cover, which was mercilessly hacked down to facilitate the hill cutting.”
Rodrigues appealed to the authorities, especially the Goa Coastal Zone Management Authority (GCZMA), Water Resources Department, and Forest Department, to urgently inspect the area and initiate necessary action to save the dwellings of the local residents from collapse during the impending monsoon.
Olencio Simoes, GRE General Secretary, highlighted the alleged illegalities conducted by the SWR contractor RVNL, such as destroying the age-old rivulet by filling it with mud and the hill cutting that will render the hamlet at Mollo, Pale village, susceptible to mudslides.
He appealed to the local authorities, especially the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the local Collector, to urgently come to the aid of the local community and ensure the safety of the residents.
The locals of Mollo ward, Pale village, appear clueless about the wanton destruction of their surroundings by the SWR double-tracking construction activities. Wedged between the existing single railway track overhead on the East and the panchayat road on the West, where heavy earth-moving machinery is seen plying round the clock, the residents appear helpless, with none of the local authorities, except the local panchayat, coming to their rescue or offering them solace.
With rain clouds hovering in the distance over the Arabian Sea, they reminisce about their peaceful coexistence with nature, fishing in the nearby brackish waters of the Poie (now polluted by industrial effluents from Paradeep Phosphates Ltd.), bathing in the natural mineral spring waterfall at Dervotae, and climbing age-old mango, jackfruit, and tamarind trees, all of which have been mercilessly hacked down by the SWR for the track expansion work.
They lament that their lives will never be the same again and fervently hope and pray that the courts will somehow come to their rescue and scrap the double-tracking project.