Team Herald
MARGAO: The residents of Arossim and Cansaulim are enraged with the South Goa Collector for failing to meet them for the past two days despite waiting for hours outside his office.
The villagers have been fighting for over 12 years to save their villages from the threats created by a mega hotel planned in the ecologically sensitive CRZ areas of their village.
The villagers have been demanding that the water bodies, flood-water nullahs and low-lying fields be conserved in view of the threat of global warming, increasing sea levels, and intensity and frequency of storms and floods in the future.
The villagers have pledged to prevent the destruction of their village for the short-term profits of a few.
They have questioned the role of the Government, which instead of protecting the villages and the people, appears more interested in serving the corporations.
The villagers claimed that they are determined to protect their village and take whatever action is necessary, in accordance with the Constitution of India and their duty towards the future generation.
They locals claimed that Arossim is threatened by a mega hotel proposed by a Delhi-based corporation in the low-lying areas within CRZ. This will lead to destruction of 11 ponds, the main nullahs draining the flood waters of the village into the Arabian Sea, and the low-lying fields that retain the floodwaters. As a result, the entire flood prevention system of the village will be destroyed.
The Principal Bench of the NGT on 24/09/2020 had ordered that the Collector is the authority to demarcate these resources and to protect them.
Accordingly, the villagers had written to the South Goa Collector on 13/11/2020 to carry out his duty and abide by the orders of the NGT. They claimed that he has not taken any action to date, placing the entire village under threat of annihilation in the future.
