Team Herald
MARGAO: The villagers of Benaulim held a novel protest on Children’s Day to highlight the negative impact of reclamation of land for Western Bypass road and have demanded that the road be built on stilts.
The protest held at the Karle property road, witnessed the presence of a lot of children, which was intended to create awareness about the potential consequences of land filling for the Western Bypass. The villagers through the children demanded that the road be built on stilts instead of reclaiming the eco-sensitive land.
Correine Dacosta, a school student said, “We have learnt in school that human beings and their activities cause danger to nature and its destruction. We can still save the ecology by stopping the filling of fields. Development is not just bridges, we want to see fields and work in them in the future.”
Former Sarpanch of Benaulim Royla Fernandes said, “It was my prime duty to show this place to the children. But will the generations to come, be able to see this? No heed has been paid to the complaints made to the collector through the panchayats regarding the reclamation.”
“As parents, please rise up. We will send the messages of the children to the panchayat first, then to the district head, the MLA, the Chief Minister and finally to the head of the United Nations Environment to take cognizance of the issue” Royla added.
“Does the PWD Minister want to listen to the people and children or just bulldoze? Is there any democracy? We know the work is almost done and scrapping the road work is a waste of public money. That is the reason we are demanding to have it on stilts” said Royla.
