Team Herald
MARGAO: Taking cognizance of the people’s anxiety over the survey undertaken in the Guirdolim on behalf of the Railways, the village panchayat held an emergency gram sabha on Sunday even though such a meeting has not been mandated under the Goa Panchayati Raj Act.
With the South Western Railways deciding to lay a double track in Goa from Vasco to Collem, the talathi was asked to survey the land which needs to be acquired and Guirdolim locals were agitated over the move to lay a double track as most of them would lose their houses.
At the gram sabha, the panchayat feigned ignorance on the issue stating that it was not taken into confidence by the authorities. Later, it was resolved to write to the Collector seeking information on the Railways project and if the Collector failed to furnish the same within seven days, the villagers threatened to launch an agitation.
The villagers are quite agitated over the mystery shrouding the entire project and were against constructing a second platform at Chandor railway station.
They also demanded that the authorities first construct the rail over bridge or under pass at the place where the present level crossing exists before any further expansion.
Incidentally, the double tracking of the Hospet-Hubli-Londa-Vasco railway track was sanctioned in 2010-2011 at an estimated cost of around Rs 2127 crore and the amount spent so far on the project undertaken by Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd is around Rs 477 crore.
During the current financial year, it has been decided to undertake the double tracking of the railway line from Tinaighat to Vasco, a stretch of 98 kms of which 79 kms is in Goa and the remaining in Karnataka.
The Section 5 of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act states that there shall be four ordinary and another four special gram sabhas in a year. It also provides for an extraordinary gram sabha provided one tenth of the gram sabha members ask for it in writing.
Admitting that there was no such requisition, Guirdolim panchayat officials pointed out that even the regular gram sabhas do not attract one-tenth members, which is the quorum and justified their action of being responsive to the people’s needs.
It would be pertinent to note that in the neighbouring Davorlim-Dicarpale panchayat, Konkan Railway has already acquired land for laying the double track and also for constructing a rail over bridge and the compensation to the affected people has also been released and the affected persons are asked to collect the same.
