Photo caption.
Navelim MLA and Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado addressing the joint meeting called to discuss the controversial western bypass. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
In an interesting development, Navelim MLA and Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado on Wednesday ordered the PWD officials and the contractor to stop all land filling work on the bypass alignment passing through Salpem lake, Navelim, till the government proposes a flyover over the entire low lying area.
The minister issued the directions at a joint meeting he had with the villagers of Navelim and Telaulim, PWD officials and the contractor when the PWD officials could not place before him the proposal for a bypass on stilts though the government had in the past assured to build a flyover on the stretch passing through Salpem lake. Navelim Sarpanch Frank Fernandes and his Telaulim counterpart Mauricio Carneiro also attended the meeting at the Navelim panchayat hall.
The meeting was held against the backdrop of complaints received from the villagers that the PWD officials and the contractor have been bulldozing with the land filling of the bypass work on the Navelim stretch at Sinquetim.
Villagers comprising of Sidharth Karapurkar, Herald Pinto and others demanded to know from the PWD whether they had the approvals and clearances to take up land filling and execute the project from various authorities. Karapurkar later told the media that the officials have not obtained the required permissions from various local authorities, including the bio-diversity board, GCZMA, Fisheries, etc before executing the project.
He also demanded to know why the width of the bypass is around 80 meters, reiterating his charge that the government is bulldozing its way to construct the expressway to link the road to the proposed airport at Mopa. “Why do we need such a huge and wide expressway when it would freeze development of the people staying close to the bypass," Karapurkar said.
The Fisheries Minister later told the media that he has directed the PWD officials as well as the contractor not to commence work on the Sinquetim-Salpem lake stretch of the bypass till the government proposes the flyover. "The government had assured me that a flyover will be built along the Sinquetim-Salpem lake stretch. Today, the officials told me there is still no proposal for a flyover," he said, adding that he has told the officials not to take up work on this stretch with immediate effect.
Incidentally, Avertano said the authorities had acquired land for the western bypass when in the 90’s when he was not an MLA, adding that he has also told the officials to find out whether the land acquisition office had complied with all laid down guidelines while acquiring the land in question.
