MARGAO: Less than a week after the 2022 Assembly election results were out, work on the contentious Western Bypass has resumed much to the shock of locals from Benaulim and Mungul.
While the locals have objected and also stopped the work of mud-filling low-lying areas, which they believe have disastrous consequences, they are hoping for a long-term solution that safeguards their interests permanently as opposed to the short-term measures.
On Wednesday, locals from Khareband were upset that the work had started again just after the election results were out. They have demanded that this issue be raised in the forthcoming assembly session
They also demanded to know why the State government appears to be hell bent on going ahead with filling up the low-lying areas to build the road and not build a flyover on elevated stilts.
They pointed out that the alternative suggestion for the bypass to be built on stilts, atleast from Seraulim to Mungul was also the recommendation of the expert environment committee that had been formed to look into the matter.
Local resident Santan Pereira argued that the reasons given by the government in the past was the lack of funds.
“The government is talking about lack of funds now but imagine the cost the people have to suffer and also the environment. Every year this place gets flooded. People will lose their place of living. The poor farmers will lose their livelihoods. There will have to be mass evacuation here when the floods strike. These are wetlands, flood-plains. All will be destroyed,” said Pereira.
Pereira alleged that crores of rupees can be spent on buying MLAs and political horse trading and that the cost of building the flyover on stilts is peanuts compared to that.
Locals emphasized that the cost of building the flyover on stilts will be less than what the government would have to incur when disaster strikes.
A local named Gilbert said that people have died due to flooding in the area in the past and said he shudders to think what could happen if their sensitive area is filled with mud and there is greater flooding in the future.
“Some of these houses are built with mud. They won’t be able to withstand the force of the water and will collapse. Does the government want to kill us in the name of development? When it floods here, people can’t travel from one side to another. So the only solution is for this western bypass stretch to be built as a flyover,” said Gilbert.
There was also concern about where the mud is being brought to fill the fields and how the construction material and slag could spill into neighbouring fields thus destroying the biodiversity and agricultural lands too.
