Team Herald
PANJIM: Alleging that the Water Resource Department’s report based on which the ten-member NGT committee did not recommend stilts for the entire 2.75 km bypass stretch in Benaulim was manipulated, local MLA Venzy Viegas has said he will approach the Chief Minister and explain to him the flaws in WRD report. He said this during a discussion on Herald TV’s Point-Counterpoint programme aired recently
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“Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant’s assurance to build 1.2 km out of the western bypass on stilts as against the 2.75 Km stretch demanded by us is a positive move. Yet, the Benaulim Panchayat appointed committee members and I will meet the CM to show how the WRD report was made in a haphazard manner and manipulated,” Viegas said.
The Benaulim MLA said that the report by WRD has manipulated the peak flood discharge and the carrying capacity of the river at the wholesale fish market to generate figures that said that a larger portion of the Western bypass was not required on stilts. These findings were not derived from any concrete information.
“There was no political will to understand and challenge this report. We will challenge this now. The committee will show how this formula was manipulated. The chief minister seems to environment friendly. Since we have formed a committee, we will show him how the manipulation was done and what the ground reality is. By showing him that, we hope for some positive action from the CM,” he said.
The ‘Benaulim Western Bypass on Stilts case’ has brought into sharp focus the importance of the People’s Biodiversity Register (PBR) for every village.
Had the Benaulim panchayat biodiversity committee prepared the document on the economic resources of the village, it may have added to the weight of the agitation for bypass on stilts. If it was in place it would have cleared all doubts and the courts and the National Green Tribunal would have given a clear verdict in their favour.
“The PBR is a vital document which was initially not available to the people. If this document would have been in place, and if everybody who was supposed to generate the report did it in the right manner and right time, then I think that document itself would have cleared all doubts and NGT would have given a clear verdict,” MLA Benaulim, Venzy Viegas said, while speaking on Herald TV’s Point-CounterPoint programme on Western Bypass.
