Team Herald
MARGAO: After strong objections from the villagers of Chandor and Guirdolim, especially from Folli Ward, the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) has finally agreed to restore the Nakazan Lake which got damaged due to due to its double tracking project.
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On Tuesday, the contractor appointed by the railway authorities was noticed engaged in desilting the lake.
It is pertinent to note that few days ago a meeting was held on lake restoration between the villagers led by Marcelino Fernandes, Mariano Peixoto, Joseph Peixoto , Mathew Peixoto, Jose Peixoto Agostinho Antao, chairman of Guirdolim BMC and the RVNL, wherein the RVNL agreed to the villagers’ demand.
The villagers had demanded that the mud be removed from the lake up to a distance of 125 metres from the sluice gate of Nakazan Lake towards the west and reduce the width from 27 metres to 14 metres.
“The villagers had also demanded not to damage/shift the sluice gate, besides removing the mud from the outlet of the lake till it confluence with Kushawati River, a point known as Manquie Golle,” said Agostinho Antao, a local resident.
He said the RVNL has also agreed to build a retaining wall.
“The villagers were relieved as they feared once the rainy season starts then there would be every possibility of their mud houses getting washed off. This fact was brought to the notice of the RVNL, which made them take the right decision,” Antao said.
Few days ago, the locals of both villages had taken strong objections to the double tracking works carried out by the railway authorities, wherein even debris was dumped in some of private and local church properties.
According to the locals, the RVNL has already caused extensive damage on the northern side of the railway track in Chandor and Guirdolim in the past, besides destroying peoples’ properties, low-lying fields, freshwater streams and a lake, which catered to the irrigation needs of the farmers, by filling it with mud.
It may be recalled that the alert villagers had stopped the RVNL trucks laden with mud and industrial waste.
The locals had protested over how the Railways had cut trees, destroyed the tributary of Zuari in Guirdolim, the sluice gate between Chandor and Guirdolim, construction of huge retaining walls and the mud dumped in large quantities in people’s properties without the consent of the landowners.
