MARGAO: The signature campaign launched by the gram sabha members of Benaulim village has received a tremendous response and is expected to meet its target of 10,000 signatures in the next few days itself. This petition, which is being signed by children, senior citizens and people of all walks of life, will be sent to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the office of the Union Highway Minister, Nitin Gadkari. Incidentally, locals from neighbouring villages and from other parts of the State have been asking if they too can sign this petition and a decision on this will be taken by the recently-formed village committee soon.
Simultaneously, the villagers are also knocking on the doors of the authorities and the first meeting in this regard has been scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas along with the members of the village committee will be meeting the Water Resources Department (WRD) officials at their Rawanfond office. This is part of the larger goal of confirming that there are errors in the government report on the western bypass, which was sent to the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Reportedly, the Western Bypass in Benaulim is not being built on stilts, which is the demand of the locals, because of the recommendations that were made by the ten-member NGT expert committee.
It is the aim of the Benaulim village committee that was formed after the special gram sabha on May 5, to show the government and courts how the NGT expert committee ignored findings of departments like the WRD and Town & Country Planning (TCP), which had warned about flooding in Benaulim if the bypass is built by filling of low-lying areas.
At the May 5 gram sabha, the MLA had found errors in reports of WRD about the intensity of rainfall in Benaulim constituency, which he wants to take up with the department.
There is a great level of discontentment amongst the villagers that the government is not listening to the voices of the people and their genuine concerns and this feeling has motivated the villagers of Benaulim to sign the petition with the hope that the PMO and Union Highway Ministry will take cognizance of their grievances.
The village committee, which is headed by the sarpanch and consists of locals and panch members, has taken the responsibility of collecting the signatures. They are also taking up the other major demand of the gram sabha about not allowing any treated sewage water from the new sewerage pipeline in Benaulim to be discharged into River Sal.
