MARGAO: Tension rent the air at Velsao as the residents were left fuming when the railway authorities allegedly encroached upon private land for double tracking work despite the owners producing documents proving their ownership, forcing the local village panchayat to issue a stop-work order and call the Verna police to the site.
What angered the locals is that the Verna Police first asked them to produce the ownership documents. Unaware that the copies of the same had already been sent to the police station, the police then allowed the railway authorities to continue their work even though the Velsao Sarpanch Maria Diana Gouveia showed the police the stop-work order in writing.
The locals, who had gathered in large numbers, appealed to the Police to at least inform the Mormugao Deputy Collector and put a temporary halt to the work. However, their pleas fell on deaf ears as Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RNVL) continued the work in the presence of Railway Protection Force (RPF).
Earlier, in the complaint letter sent to Velsao Panchayat, Verna Police and South Goa District Collector, Shalini Barbosa, Violet Barbosa and Anil Babrosa stated that they are the joint legal heirs of all the properties belonging to their late parents Dr Ivo Barbosa and Lizette Braganza Barbosa. They attached the copies of the property documents.
“The contractors of RVNL are trespassing and conducting illegal construction by encroaching on our property. They are laying concrete foundations in our property, damaging our water well, destabilising fully-grown coconut trees causing damage to life and property. All this is being done without our written permission,” reads their complaint.
Based on this complaint, the Velsao Panchayat issued a stop-work order to RVNL asking them to stop activities in the property immediately and to produce legal documents if any, within three days, failing which action will be initiated in accordance with the law.
“There is a total collapse of law and order. The Chief Minister seems to be doing nothing about it. The Deputy Collector should have taken some action and listened to the voices of the people because it is not right to trespass into someone else’s property and get the work done this way,” said Captain Francisco Gouveia, one of the protestors at the site.
“This is total goondagiri. The people are agitated. The authorities concerned must understand that they cannot enter ancestral properties and do construction without even intimating the owners. They have criminally encroached and trespassed upon these areas. Today what we see is gross violation of every act in the land,” said Orville Dourado Rodrigues, Goencho Ekvott founder member.
“The Police Sub-Inspector (PSI) was here. We asked him to at least ask RVNL to maintain the status quo. He says no, I have got instructions from the higher-ups from the Deputy Collector’s office not to stop any work. When the land is violated, the deputy collector is the government servant, he has to look into the issue,” said Rodrigues.
