MARGAO
Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro on Monday said the western bypass sans stilts is a crime against environment and ecology, raising fears that the construction may devastate the vast tracts of agricultural fields and the river Sal.
Sympathizing with a delegation of Benaulim farmers led by John Barretto, Roque Fernandes and Neri Fernandes, who made a fervent plea to him to raise the issues of western bypass in Parliament, Faleiro said people in the affected villages have been running from pillar to post to get the bypass on stilts, lamenting that no one is around to lend their ears to the struggling villagers.
Assuring the delegation that he would get TMC involved so that he can raise the issue in Rajya Sabha a la the controversial three linear projects, Faleiro has stressed the need to put the bypass on stilts after an environmental impact assessment study.
“They are filling up the paddy fields, damaging and devastating the total areas from Seraulim to Benaulim and beyond. The PWD, National Highways should have studied before undertaking the work”, he said.
Faleiro added: “I am not against the bypass, but the work should have been carried out on scientific lines and stilts, so that the rainwater flows without obstruction during the monsoon, without damaging the villages”.
He feared that the construction of the bypass sans stilts may also damage the underground water table and has asked the government to stop damaging the low lying agricultural fields.
A Benaulim villager John Barreto later told the media that the ongoing work has bifurcated the paddy fields in the villagers, adding that the work has started without taking the farmers into confidence.
Activist Roque Fernandes informed that the villagers are not opposing the bypass just for the sake of opposition, pointing out that the villagers are only demanding the bypass on stilts. He made a fervent plea to the government not to put the lives of the people at risk just to control the cost of the project.
The villagers had on Sunday called on the South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha with a plea to raise the controversial bypass project in the Loka Sabha.
