the goan I network
MAPUSA
Disappointed by the State administration’s indifference and the recent High Court’s order, the farmers of Parra have decided to write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi against the decision of the Electricity department and the local MLA’s stubbornness to take high tension power lines through their fields against the wishes of the farmers.
The farmers also ridiculed the State government for urging people to take up community farming but at the same time causing damage to the same fields they have to cultivate.
“The farmers are aggrieved as we have not got justice. We had suggested the administration to take the electricity lines through the roads but they have preferred to take them through our fields causing damage to our cultivable land. We are planning to appeal to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the injustice done to the farmers of Parra,” said Genevive Fernandes, a local resident.
Opposing the Power department’s plan, the farmers had knocked the doors of the High Court but failed in their mission when the court allowed the department to go ahead with its plan by adequately compensating the farmers.
Lambasting the authorities, a farmer, Casmiro D’Cunha said the officers issued directions which went against their occupation.
“The High Court order came only on the directions issued by the Collector who failed to take the grievances of the farmers into account,” D’Cunha said.
He said the farmers had the option to move the Supreme Court on the order but could not afford the expenses to approach the top court.
“My only appeal to the Chief Minister, Pramod Sawant is to look into the matter with a humanitarian angle and change the HT power line route through the roads,” he said.
The farmers said that they were not against development but the authorities should follow proper procedures.
“Initially, the electricity department did not even bother to take the farmers into confidence. Only when we protested, they acknowledged their mistake,” Fernandes said.
Questioning the intervention of the Calangute and Candolim sarpanchas in the High Court, another farmer, Jose Pacheco wondered whether the people of the two villages wanted to enjoy electricity at the cost of the livelihood of Parra farmers.
An elderly local, Luiza Fernandes described how the workers of the electricity department had destroyed her farm land while erecting the electricity poles in the fields.
“I had sowed the field and little saplings were just sprouting when the department’s workers along with their vehicles trampled on my produce,” Fernandes said.
She recounted how her ancestors were cultivating the fields in the past and that she was taking forward the practice now by employing modern techniques.
