MARGAO
The controversial NH66 expansion at the Dandeavaddo stretch of Chinchinim village dominated at the Village Development Committee of the panchayat on Thursday.
Members questioned the rationale of the government in bulldozing with the highway expansion on stilts when the people of Dandeavaddo has been waging a sustained struggle to build a road bypass.
Villagers staying close to the existing NH66 highway, who attended the meeting, gave vent to their sentiments, saying they had suffered the most since the mid-80’s when the PWD had acquired their land for a pittance to build a two-lane highway.
They pointed out that some of the villagers had to raze down their ancestral houses to make way for the two-lane highway and build news houses nearby, adding that the PWD is back again to acquire their land and displace them from their land.
The participants also drew attention of the panchayat body chaired by sarpanch Valentino Barretto that apart from acquiring the land, they cannot do any development on either side of the highway since there’s a freeze on development on both sides of the highway.
The Sarpanch informed that while the government had acquired the land of the villagers for a pittance for a two-lane highway, the PWD has not planned a 10-lane highway at Dandeavaddo, with a six-lane highway on stilts and four-lane road along the existing road.
Barretto further pointed out that the residents of Dandeavaddo had been fighting for a road bypass since the last 10 years, demanding to know the reasons behind the latest proposal to expand the existing highway on stilts when road bypasses are a norm than an exception across the State. “We had taken up the matter since the time former MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues was a Minister. He has been following up the issue of the residents, but somehow the road bypass did not materialise till date,” he said, while saying the people of Dandeavaddo will continue to oppose expansion of the existing NH66 on stilts.
