Team Herald
PANJIM: The Old Goa police on Sunday stopped construction work of a bridge linking Cumbharjua to Santo Estevam after villagers complained that the bridge is being built illegally.
The St Estevam Village Panchayat has already issued a stop work order to the contractor. The work was executed by Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited (GSIDC).
Stop work order states that the St Estevam Village Panchayat had neither proposed the said bridge nor it had given permission to construct any such bridge. Therefore, the construction of bridge should be stopped with immediate effect, the villagers said.
Speaking to the media, a villager said, “We were already disturbed over the new bridge spanning around 50-metre being built linking Cumbharjua to Santo Estevam. We don’t want such type of development at the cost of destruction of ecology and environment”. Stating further he said, “One bridge is already operational and in additional a ferry boat is functional at Daujim. We are completely unaware to whose benefit the second bridge is being constructed”.
The project title at the site reads, ‘Construction of bridge for local farmers to cross river stream for cultivation of fields from Chune-Kator to Vanso field in village of Cumbharjua’.
The entire issue started with the villagers gathering at the St Estevam Village Panchayat to attend the special gram sabha meeting on Sunday.
On reading the notice that the special gram sabha is being postponed due to Election code of conduct, the villagers appeared annoyed and contacted Sarpanch Joanita D’Costa, who however, could not give them any concrete answer. Later, the villagers along with Panchayat members decided to lodge a police complaint against the ongoing illegal construction work of the bridge.
According to another village Panchayat member, Viona Afonso, “Two weeks ago a collective decision was taken to hold this special gram sabha on Sunday. The sarpanch is adopting delaying tactics and it is her modus operandi”, said Afonso.
When contacted, St Estevam Sarpanch Joanita D’Costa said, “the Village Panchayat had already issued a stop work order. There are few villagers who are trying to gain election publicity out of this issue”.
Mariano Ferrao, a villager who is also a social activist said, “I had raised the issue of illegal construction of bridge during a gram sabha about a month ago. When we visited the construction site on Sunday, we saw a stop work order notice pasted at the site. On account of this, we decided to file a police complaint to stop the ongoing illegal construction work of the bridge”.
