PONDA: With just three weeks left for Lok Sabha (LS) polls, the Bhomkars declared they would vote against the BJP, at the same time support the party which will scrap the proposed National Highway (NH) expansion project from Bhoma and assure of a bypass to save their villages.
They were also upset with the fact that they were arrested for protesting against the proposed expansion. They even submitted a memorandum to President of India, Droupadi Murmu, appraising her of their struggle.
Sanjay Naik, who is spearheading the leadership of Bhomkars against the proposed NH expansion plan from Bhoma village, said the four State ministers from Ponda taluka are boasting that BJP’s South Goa candidate will win by a huge margin due to the large number of votes from the respective constituencies in Ponda taluka.
“One minister had given a guarantee of 40,000 votes. How many times have these ministers visited Bhoma to hear our problems? Have the voters in Ponda taluka surrendered their voting rights to these politicians, prompting them to make such statements on their behalf? If so, where is democracy? These ministers should not take Bhomkars for granted as we won’t vote for BJP,” Naik said.
He said that since a long time the villagers have been agitating against highway expansion plans at Bhoma, demanding the BJP government to scrap the project and give bypass instead.
“But all our pleas have fallen on deaf ears of the BJP government. Now we have decided to support and vote for the party which will listen to our grievances and support our demand for a bypass at Bhoma,” Naik said.
He said Bhomkars will take care that their votes don’t split. He said there are more than 80 houses in villages and the villagers along with their relatives living in other parts of Ponda taluka, together have around 2000 votes, which won’t split and will go to the party which will support their demand for bypass.
“We will rally behind the civil society, which is fighting to protect Goa from forced projects, river nationalisation, deforestation, jetties for mining and coal transportation etc,” Naik said.
