CALANGUTE: After work on the ‘development’ of the Candolim ‘bundh’ by the Water Resources Department (WRD) was stopped following directions from the Bombay High Court (HC) at Goa, the work of ‘redevelopment’ by the WRD of the Fondvem nullah project at Khobravaddo, Calangute, has also been halted by the HC after an NGO filed a petition with the high court citing violations of environmental norms.
Apart from the environmental aspects, the NGO, Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) has claimed that both the projects were undertaken at government expense to benefit the private builders lobby.
At Candolim, the three metre-wide bundh was converted into a six metre-wide road, while at Calangute a road was being developed by encroaching in a ‘nullah’, according to the CCF.
“There is a building project on the side and this project of three metres-wide ‘bundh’ is being built to provide access for that with public funds,” according to the CCF.
Despite opposition from the CCF and others in March, the WRD continued with the work and also increased the width of the ‘bundh’ from three metres to 4.5 metres, CCF president Premanand Divkar said.
The NGO later filed a petition with the Bombay high court following which work has now come to a halt.
“The project which was started in December 2021 was stopped following intervention by the CCF and locals. The project was restarted with a three metres-wide ‘bundh’ planned surrounding the Fondvem water body which is not in the interest of the village. We had proposed that a retaining wall be built instead of the three metres-wide ‘bundh’ to protect the area which was working to soak rain water and recharge the ground water table,” the CCF said.
“There is a building project at the spot construction of which has been stopped because there’s no access road. The ‘bundh’ will connect to this building. We feel there are some irregularities going on,” the CCF said.
The WRD project costing Rs 2.7 cr had been launched in December 2021.
