If one happens to take a look around in Siolim right from St Anthony’s church to Tar, the PWD has recklessly demolished compounds, and widened roads even by cutting trees giving scant respect to the feelings of landowners.
Trenches have been dug at the doorsteps of homes without the application of mind and the occupants can neither enter nor exit their homes.
For Senior citizens, it’s a living hell as they are virtually placed under house arrest as they find it impossible to get in and out of their homes as it is just not possible to hop, skip and jump over trenches and with rubble dumped outside their homes.
Even electricity connections are disconnected from poles and are hanging precariously from inside certain residences in the village. Is this cost cutting by the electricity department?
The heartless officials should be dragged to the Goa Human Rights Commission for violating the fundamental rights of people.
Sources reveal that compounds have been demolished and land forcefully grabbed from people for road widening in the village without acquiring the same. The gullible land owners have been told that they would be paid at the rate of Rs 15,000 per sq mt even when the current land rate at Siolim is price at Rs 90,000 per sq mt. Villagers should realise that when land is acquired by the government for development then they have to pay the landowner four times the current existing rate in the market as per Supreme Court guidelines. The authorities should stop taking villagers for granted.
