MARGAO
Benaulim villagers have upped the ante for construction of the western bypass on stilts as they made an application containing as many as 1128 signature to the Benaulim panchayat to call a special gram sabha to discuss the issue.
A villager Roque Fernandes informed that the application containing the 1128 names and signatures has been entered in the village panchayat, with a plea to demanding a special gram sabha to discuss the western bypass issue.
He hoped the panchayat would accede to the demands of the villagers by convening the special gram sabha and facilitate a discussion on the contentious issue.
While the National Green Tribunal-appointed 10-member panel has recommended bypass on stilts on a stretch admeasuring 980 metres on the Seraulim-Mungul section, the panel has overlooked the demand of the villagers for construction of the bypass on stilts along the entire 2.75 km balance stretch of the bypass between Benaulim and Seraulim.
Farmers from Benaulim as well as the villagers have been waging a long drawn struggle over the last half a decade, demanding construction of the bypass on stilts, fearing that a bypass built on earthen embankments will devastate the flood plains of river Sal and destroy tracts of agricultural land and the biodiversity of the village.
The villagers had last month called on the South Goa MP Francisco Sardinha as well as TMC Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro to take up the western bypass issue in Parliament given that the project is a central-government funded project.
