CHORAO: United Citizen of Chorao will be holding a day-long hunger strike on September 28 to highlight the dilly-dallying attitude of the BJP government in the construction of the promised bridge connecting Chorao Island to the mainland.
At the General body meeting of the United Citizen of Chorao at St Bartholomew’s Church hall, it was resolved to submit a memorandum to Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, who had promised construction of the bridge. The construction of the bridge was an election promise of the BJP.
The meet also resolved to hold corner meetings in the panchayat area of Mayem constituency. The meeting which was held under the chairmanship of Shrikrishna Haldankar was attended by organizing Secretary Tony Noronha, Treasurer Digamber Fadte, Mayem ex-sarpanch Subhash Kinalkar amongst others.
The day-long hunger strike would be held near Madel-Chorao Ferry point, with the objective of brining into focus the BJP promise of giving “top priority to lay the foundation in six month and construct the bridge in two years, if BJP government comes to power.” But now almost three and half years have passed nothing has been done vis-à-vis the proposed bridge, said Haldankar.
In the past UCC had asked the Chodan gram sabha to call a special meeting to know the status of the bridge and get a feedback from the local MLA, the chief minister and GSIDC officers. At the gram sabha held on August 16, villagers once again unanimously resolved to conduct special gram sabha in a month’s time to know the status of the Chrao bridge. At the last gram sabha, the UCC urged the villagers to support and join the hunger strike on September 28. Sarpach Mrs Arti Bandodkar and other present members extend support to the plan.
