Team Herald
PONDA: Upset over Union Minister Nitin Gadkari’s statement on constructing an elevated road at Bhoma, the villagers on Sunday said that they were ready to die in their fight for a bypass to save their deity, cultural heritage and festivals.
The villagers said Gadkari’s announcement to construct an elevated road is an injustice to them and thanked South Goa MP Capt Viriato Fernandes for raising the Bhoma issue in Parliament.
Replying to Capt Viriato question, Gadkari said that the highway expansion will be carried out along the existing alignment to minimise impact on local structures. It has been aligned in such a way that there is bare minimum impact on the existing structures/water bodies. No religious structures will be affected.
Sanjay Naik, who is leading the villagers’ fight, said, “The elevated road will divide the village further and will be a major hurdle in celebrating festivals and religious rituals such as rathotsav procession. A lot of space will be sacrificed for NH expansion. The elevated road may not touch the temple, but without sufficient space, how will we be able to celebrate our age-old festivals?”
He warned that with the help of devotees, Bhomkars will launch a major agitation like Nylon 66 which took place way back in Priol.
Naik said, “The fight against NH expansion will continue. We are ready to sacrifice our lives to save the traditional festival of Sateri Devi and Narayan Dev but will never allow an elevated road flyover which will pose a major hurdle to our festival.”
He said, “We have forwarded our memorandum, grievances and details of festivals to Gadkari mentioning that the elevated road will affect the temple’s beauty and pose hurdles in festival celebrations, but sadly it is great injustice that the Union Minister approved the proposal of the State government and the local MLA. NH Authorities never listened to our grievances.”
“If the BJP is really bothered about Hindutva and deities, then they should protect our culture. The BJP is forcing elevated roads on the residents of Bhoma instead of constructing a bypass, Naik alleged.