Raise environmental concerns, demand feasibility report
TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: As trucks roll in and out of Nuvem with tons of mud for the proposed bypass, local citizens and farmers have raised eyebrows over the fast pace of work in view of the Lusofonia Games.
A host of questions are staring at the government, with both residents and farmers alike demanding to know whether the authorities have obtained the feasibility report or the authentic impact assessment study or the mandatory environmental clearance from the competent authorities at the state and central level.
Says educationist Sunil Keshkamat: “Local residents and farmers need to know answers to these and many other questions. You cannot simply come and bury lush green fields under the guise of development. The project is being carried out in a very slip-shod manner without taking the residents and farmers into confidence. Let the government place for public scrutiny the feasibility report, EIA report and the environmental clearance.”
Keshkamat has expressed concern over the entire project. “A project that poses such real and irreversible threat cannot under any circumstances masquerade as a development initiative. For a project to qualify as a developmental initiative even simple common sense dictates that such development needs to be sustainable and safe,” she said.
Remarked a farmer: “The region near the Rumdir Bund has been a very valuable traditional grain threshing site for the farming community and recreation site for the local population over ages. The water that is stored in this area by the use of check dams is a practice that is said to go back at least 500 years. This stored water feeds the underground water table all the way to Cansaulim, Majorda and Betalbatim. By partially filling it up with such a large quantity of earth, the basin’s capacity to hold water will drastically reduce.”
Social activist Zarinha Da Cunha pointed out that villages have been demanding total transparency in the execution of the project. “They dumped industrial slag for the road embankment in the lush green paddy fields and stopped only when villagers took to the streets. The project site forms a prime portion of the entire eco-sensitive zone of the Nuvem village and is of utmost environmental importance as it is lined by a green belt. In fact, it is a rich biodiversity hub,” Zarinha asserted.
Keshkamat has now threatened to knock the doors of the highest national authorities if the project continues unchecked and causes flood damage and environmental destructions, to ensure criminal prosecution of those responsible
for what will be a deliberate and wanton act of
destruction.
