Team Herald

QUEPEM: Acrimonious scenes were witnessed at the Sanvordem gram sabha when two rival groups locked horns over a mega residential project in the village. As tempers began to rise with neither the opponents nor proponents of the project willing to give in, Curchorem police intervened to bring the tense situation under control.

There was a verbal spat between the two rival groups with one group opposing the mega project tooth and nail as they charged that it was constructed at the cost of an approach road to Bagwada village and had no alternative facilities in place.

The proponents of the project however were not willing to give in and argued that they supported the project from the development point of view as it would change the face of their village which was backwards to date.

This led to heated arguments between the two warring factions, literally paralysing the functioning of the gram sabha and as the volatile situation tried to go out of hand, police and a panch member tried to calm down the fraying tempers to no avail. Both the groups stood their ground on the matter.

Gram Sabha member Vithal Audienkar protested against the mega project saying that it had encroached on the traditional pathway, there was no route for emergency vehicles and other basic amenities were not thought of by the concerned authorities while clearing the project file. The problem of waste disposal was also an issue here, said Audienkar.

As the issues could not be settled amicably, Sarpanch Chinmayi Naik stepped in and said that the approval for the project was given by the Administrator and the present panchayat body had nothing to do with it. “We will take legal advice on the matter and discuss the issue at the next panchayat meeting and decide accordingly,” said Naik.