PONDA: Expressing concern over the destruction of the hills in their village and degradation of the river, Curti-Khandepar locals have demanded that illegal hill-cutting and dumping of mud in the river be stopped, immediately.
These issues were also discussed at a meeting chaired by Sarpanch Santan Fernandes, recently. During the meeting, the people demanded that parking of trucks along roadside at Curti be prohibited.
The sarpanch said whenever people complained, the panchayat has taken action. Regarding hill cutting, he said that the talathi conducted panchanama along with flying squad and seized the machinery.
With respect to bandhara progressing in Khandepar River, he said panchayat has not provided any NOC for the work. Locals alleged that river is filled with mud for construction of bandara, pebbles illegally extracted and mud comprise of manganese and bauxite brought from MRF plant and is dumped into river for making way for construction of bandhara.
Locals fear that this would completely destroy marine life as efforts are made to separate sweat and seawater.
The locals demanded inspection of Khandepar River by Panchayat body.
Locals also brought to the notice of the panchayat that due to heavy truck parking and other vehicles at roadside, it has become accident prone zone and demanded that locals and panchayat members should protest against inaction of RTO, Traffic Department.
They also pointed that these authorities have not been taking action on illegal truck parking despite the issue is dominating in every gram sabha and notices sent to authorities.
Later, the locals conducted inspection of Khandepar River and addressed the media demanding that the authorities stop degradation of the river.
