MARGAO
As the ruling BJP was busy electing its Legislature Party Leader to take over the office and the Opposition Congress drawing up future strategies, newly-elected Aam Aadmi Party MLAs -- Capt Venzy Viegas and Engineer Cruz Silva got down to serious business in their respective constituencies.
While Venzy took up cudgels for the beleaguered villagers of Benaulim waging a sustained battle against the controversial western bypass, Cruz has led from the front in Velim to ensure the ongoing river Sal dredging work does not go against the interests and livelihood of the traditional fishermen.
In the last 12 days since his election, Venzy and the people got the Benaulim panchayat to adopt a resolution to take up the bypass matter in the High Court.
“The action initiated by me in the bypass matter ought to have been done over a year ago, but there was no political will. But, it’s never too late and we will do everything within our means to get the bypass on stilts”, Venzy added.
Even as the lawyer roped in by the Panchayat are devising the strategy on how to go about in the court to get the bypass on stilts, the MLA descended at the world-famous Colva beach with Tourism and police officials to put a system in place to rid the perennial problems plaguing the beach.
In the process, he sent a message to the Colva police that he would call spade a spade, calling upon the police higher-ups to take to task the police whom he described as the Sachin Vaze of Maharashtra and give relief to the people from extortion.
Across the river Sal, Venzy’s Velim counterpart Cruz also got down to the serious business of attending to public grievances head-on. An activist who had participated in the ongoing agitation against the dredging of river Sal, Cruz called the dredging contractor to tell him in no uncertain terms that people will not tolerate if any attempt is made to dredge the marine habitat which would displace the traditional fishermen and their livelihood.
The newly-elected Velim MLA also took up cudgels for the beleaguered water consumers from his constituency, who are in receipt of hefty bills. After a meeting with the concerned PWD engineer, Cruz vowed to take up the matter with the government, insisting the water bill issue can be resolved if the government rolls back the slab for 50 units and above.
