Team Herald
PONDA: Anxious over the possibility of flooding and the danger to their lives and homes, the villagers of Usgao-Ganjem strongly opposed the bhandara being built at Murdi, on the Khandepar river. On Sunday, the members of the gram sabha of Curti-Khandepar village, located on the other bank of the river, had also objected to the bhandara, claiming that the government did not inform the locals about the pros and cons of the project.
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The locals who live on the riverbanks are still haunted by the massive floods of 2021, when many homes were inundated. The bandhara in question was proposed by the Water Resources Department for the storage of water to be treated and supplied to Ponda, Priol and other villages in the locality.
A group of Usgao locals comprising Abjieet Naik, Nilesh Gaude and Rohan Naik said they held a meeting on Tuesday, which was supposed to be attended by WRD officials, but they did not show up. “While the river and soil testing has already been done, we are still being kept in the dark about the bhandara,” said the locals. They believe the bhandara will lead to flooding and added that the government had given them very meagre amounts as compensation when their houses were devastated by floods last year.
Sarpanch Narendra Gaonkar said that the Usgao panchayat had not issued any NOC for the construction of the bandhara, nor has it received any correspondence from the WRD. “We will meet WRD Minister Subash Shirodkar and
demand more information,” he added.
