Over one hundred locals from Bhoma, including the Sarpanch, women and even senior citizens were detained by police for opposing the survey of trees for the controversial road-widening work. In police action that triggered outrage amongst locals against the ruling dispensation, locals were picked up at the site taken to the Collem police station and later released. The crux of the matter is that they obstructed the survey work while locals contended that the survey had been undertaken surreptitiously without unveiling any plans.
While authorities are within their rights to hold a survey, the secrecy with which they go about their work, especially in contentious cases where there is mass opposition, appears to be a major concern.
In this case, Executive Magistrate Ruchika Birje was trying to tell the people on site that they have come to only survey the trees, and nothing else. The officials went ahead with the survey work once the protesting locals were detained and moved to the Collem police station. The action sent out a clear message that the government is going ahead with the project it chooses to, come what may, and the intent with which Birje ordered detention shows that there are no better ways here.
The anger of the locals was obvious. Appeals to defeat the BJP at the ensuing Lok Sabha elections and not allowing the party to campaign in the area are clear signs of the growing resentment. A section at the people even sought divine intervention and invoked God against those responsible. People generally tend to get sympathy when the system bulldozes its way against them. In Bhoma case, moves to ignore local concerns can have a ripple effect.
Officials visiting sites unannounced and facing the ire of locals is not new, and the IIT projects that have been rejected in the past are testimony to the fact that resentment stems from the fact that surveys are done suspiciously. In most instances, the larger plan is kept out of bounds. In the Bhoma case, locals are presented with a piecemeal picture.
The road-widening road project is mired in controversy because there are so many questions that remain unanswered. For example, there is still no clarity on the area to be acquired for the road widening. While State officials have indicated that 30 metres will be acquired, the National Highway Authority men have claimed it to be 60 metres.
Another irony is that while the government chose to build the 3 km stretch on stilts by pumping in over Rs 500 crore at Bhoma, it has turned down a plea for stilts across a mere 600 metres down Salcete at Tolleband Benaulim where villagers are facing inundation, leave alone the western bypass stretch of 1.8 km that has been rejected.
The survey work comes just ahead of the visit of Minister of Highways and Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari, a central minister who had come down hard at the State leaders for failing to take the locals into confidence and convince them of the benefits of projects.
