MARGAO: The villagers of Velsao-Pale-Issorcim village said they were betrayed by the Verna Police on Friday after the men in khaki backed railway authorities as they encroached into private land, even though the landlord had fenced the boundaries of the property.
The villagers were anguished that the Verna police went back on the public assurance they had given the landlord on Thursday evening, that a meeting would be held on Friday morning wherein the landlord would be allowed to produce documents to prove his ownership.
The railway authorities had also agreed to this decision, but on Friday, neither they, nor the police stuck to this promise and the documents brought by the landlord were not even looked at.
It was clear that the police were on the side of the railway authorities as busloads of police personnel arrived at the site, in addition to those who had come in their jeeps.
Tension prevailed when the fencing was forcibly removed, and the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) contractor began work in the private property with the support of the police. The upset locals said they were ready to fight and physically prevent the said encroachments.
However, local leaders
advised them not to do so, in order that the protest
remains peaceful. The locals vowed to continue their
agitation as their lives were already affected by the
high-handedness of the railway officials.
“We want peace in our village; we don’t want any law-and-order situation, but the authorities are forcing us to come on to the roads. The people are agitated. We don’t know what will happen, and we will not be able to control the villagers any further because the railways have trespassed into private properties. Now they have started to go into the houses of the people, besides landfilling our rainwater drainage systems and nullahs that empty into tributaries of River Sal,” said Orville Dourado Rodrigues, Goencho Ekvott (GE) founder.
Later in the evening, it was agreed that a meeting would be held at the Collector’s office but only with the landlords present. Locals felt that this would be too late as by then, the work of the railways would continue, and they pointed out that their storm water drains had already been damaged by the RVNL.
Questions were raised as to why Cortalim MLA Antonio Vas was absent.
The villagers also said that the Railways had begun entering the people’s houses under the police protection for demarcation while
claiming private properties and houses as the Railway properties.
“The railways are doing what they want, entering private properties and opening access on different sides without fear of law. Even after the landlords marked their properties using a surveyor, the state administration damaged the fences and gave access to railways through private lands under police protection. The Railways have already encroached around 1.5 meters of the private properties for this work,” said Olencio Simoes, GE member.
“If the railways do not agree to our survey, why should we agree to their survey?We have property papers that show that the existing tracks are in our lands. The administration that is supposed to protect the people is protecting the encroachers,” Simoes added, while demanding that the Directorate of Land and Survey (DSLR) be called to inspect the property demarcations.
“The railways had assured us to show their land ownership papers, but they seem to have nothing in hand. The railways are showing the village survey plan with different survey numbers belonging to different landlords of the Village, which does not prove any ownership of the Railways on the land that they are working. How can Railways enter into someone’s property and claim that it is their land, and start working on it as if there is no law at all?” questioned former Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha.
