MARGAO: Tension prevailed in Velsao on Friday when the Railway authorities, backed by a strong police force, dismissed objections from local residents and began dumping construction material on private property near the railway crossing on the Velsao Beach Road.
This is not the first time Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL), which is carrying out the much-opposed double tracking work for the South Western Railway (SWR), has resorted to felling trees and using machinery in the area, despite the presence of the helpless land owners.
However, this time, a large number of police personnel were deployed at the site and the RVNL contractor, with heavy machinery like JCB machines, began the work even as local residents and owners of the ancestral houses on the stretch agitated at the site for hours.
What left the residents infuriated is that they even informed the RVNL and the police that they had court orders that prohibited the obstruction of their traditional access and right of way. The officials ignored them and continued with their work, only stopping to record the agitated locals on their mobile phones.
“RVNL is mercilessly hacking away at trees that were planted by the villagers and later on by Goencho Ekvott members so that they would act as natural sound and coal pollution barriers from the passing trains. This felling of trees on private land continues unabated,” said Orville Rodrigues, founder member of Goencho Ekvott (GE).
The people who live near the railway tracks deal with numerous issues due to the vibrations caused by the coal-laden trains that pass their houses on a daily basis. Coal pieces fall into their property and their houses have also developed cracks. They have also been dealing with access issues, and this latest move by RVNL has left them, including senior citizens, extremely anxious about what will happen next.
“This amounts to the gross violation of so many laws. First of all, this is private property and no land acquisition has been initiated here. How can construction debris and machinery be dumped here, and these people and their vehicles trespass like this. Secondly, the Forest Department should file an FIR for felling these trees,” Rodrigues added.
On Friday, when RVNL began their work, the residents demanded that they be shown some sort of paperwork, plans, land survey or permissions and lambasted the authorities for literally bulldozing their way into their property.
“Are we second or third-class citizens in our own land? Chief Minister Pramod Sawant must take cognisance of this and respond to our queries. Is this the kind of development the government wishes to promote? At what cost? ” Rodrigues added further.
The locals have vowed not to give up their fight to protect their lands and accesses, and criticised the government for trying to push them out of the places their families and ancestors have called home.
