MARGAO: The citizens of Margao held a human chain protest along the nullah behind the ESI Hospital in Margao on Saturday morning, where they demanded the suspension of Water Resources Department (WRD) engineers responsible for an alleged fraud worth Rs 81 lakh.
The citizens, a mix of activists and local residents, made a strong appeal to the High Court (HC) and the Speaker of the Assembly to take serious cognizance, and action against the WRD engineers for furnishing misleading information to the Court and the Goa Assembly.
“If the government fails to take action, we shall approach the competent forum including the court of law for the recovery of the same,” activist Mahesh Naik warned.
Former Margao Municipality Chairperson Savio Coutinho alleged that false and misleading answers were provided to the Legislative Assembly in response to a question filed by the Fatorda MLA. In the LAQ answer dated August 2, the answer provided through the WRD Minister Subash Shirodkar states that the parallel nullah was required to increase the quantity of storm water discharge.
“How on earth do the WRD engineers expect to increase the storm water discharge when both the nullahs are connected to the same narrow culvert?” Coutinho questioned while pointing out to the narrow box culvert.
“You don’t need a super qualified engineer to say that widening of the narrow culvert would have facilitated better discharge of storm water rather than the construction of a parallel nullah. A fraud hydrology study was conducted,” Coutinho alleged.
“Most of the drains in Colmorod are damaged or in pathetic condition, these precious public funds would have been sufficient to provide new drains for the entire ward,” said local resident Estella D’Souza.
“We warn that any attempts to bury/close the existing nullah for real estate development shall be strongly opposed by the public,” another protestor, Carlos Gracias, added.
The citizens have been protesting the shifting of the nullah for around two years now. The issue came to light when a large number of trees were felled to make way for the construction of the nullah that the protestors suspect was built to benefit real estate developers.
