the goan I network
MAPUSA
The villagers of Calangute are up in arms against land filling activity carried out by the Calangute panchayat ostensibly for widening of the main road in front of the St Alex Church in Calangute.
A group of locals gathered near the road widening site on Tuesday protesting against what they called blatant land filling of fields without following proper procedures.
“In 2017, the Calangute panchayat had taken a resolution to widen the present road from eight metres to 25 metres from St Alex Church to Reira Petro Pump. The panchayat is forcibly carrying out the road widening activity without following proper procedures,” said Clotilda Braganza, former panch of Calangute.
She said the panchayat has thrown all caution to the winds and flouted all possible rules while carrying out the road widening activity.
“No land acquisition process has been followed and none of the field owners have been compensated,” Braganza said.
Acting Sarpanch Sudesh Mayenkar informed that the ongoing road widening work was part of tourism development circuit taken up by the government.
“There is no land filling activity going on the area. They were just removing excess mud from one area and filling the gaps. These were the same people who were demanding to remove the mud is the gram sabha, so we are removing the mud and dumping wherever it is incomplete,” Mayenkar said.
The acting sarpanch further disclosed that the work was being undertaken by GSIDC and not by the panchayat.
