PONDA: Furious over the government imposing Section 144 for constructing bandhara at Murdi on Thursday, the villagers demanded immediate stoppage of work and pressed for withdrawal of Section 144, which prohibits “unlawful assembly”.
Locals fear flooding due to the project. The locals questioned whether the panchayat had given any NOC for the project, to the village local body said they were kept in the dark over the project and WRD didn’t give any information. Following this, locals demanded that the panchayat approach the court to give justice to villagers.
The villagers condemned the “dictatorship of the BJP government”, which is forcing the bandhara project on them, despite the possibility of floods after completion of the project.
Sarpanch Sanjana Naik said the panchayat will take legal advice on this issue. The villagers said they are opposed to the project as it is a flood prone area and in the past several houses got flooded.
It may be recalled that on August 18, South Goa Collector imposed Section 144 in Murdi area for construction of Murdi-Sonarbaag barrage-cum-pumping station for drinking water requirement in Priol and surrounding areas at a cost of Rs 88 crore. However, the locals from Curti-Khandepar and Ganjem-Usgao are opposing the project fearing floods.
Local panch member Abijeet Gaude said, “Locals today grilled us over the bandhara issue, following which I along with the sarpanch and other panch members inspected the site. The Murdi Panchayat has not given any NOC to the project. It appears WRD is doing this work without informing the panchayat. The locals are opposed to the bandhara as they fear flooding will occur due to the project.”
“We have informed the Chief Minister about this issue and he has assured us to visit Murdi in the next few days,” Gaude said.
Sarpanch Sanjana Naik said if the need arose, the panchayat would resort to legal action.
“We will take legal advice and even appoint an advocate to file cases in the court. But before that, we will ask Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to visit the bandhara site and find a solution to the problem. The Chief Minister had assured the locals to visit the site and hear our grievances,” Naik said.
According to locals, around 80 houses were affected due to floods in the past and in case of bandhara came up, more villagers would suffer. They alleged that the authorities failed to file an Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report in context of the threat of flooding in the area.