MAPUSA
Reiterating their opposition to ongoing work to set up a mobile tower at the site of the sports complex, residents of Colvale on Saturday also resolved not to allow additional mobile towers in the village.
These decisions were taken at a special meeting in the Shri Jari Mari Devasthan Hall in Koniwada-Colvale, which was attended by Colvale Sarpanch Ritesh Varkhandkar, Panch Sheetal Chodankar, and a large number of residents.
Earlier on Thursday, high drama unfolded at Colvale when the village sarpanch and residents physically blocked an excavator from carrying out groundwork for a proposed mobile tower near the village playground, forcing the state administration to stop the work.
In this connection, an urgent meeting was convened on Saturday where Varkhandkar said the mobile tower is being erected by keeping the panchayat and villagers in the dark.
He informed residents that neither the company nor the government had given any prior notice to the panchayat regarding the proposed mobile tower at the Colvale Sports Complex site. He added that no permission had been sought from the panchayat in this connection.
Residents at the meeting demanded that the government build this tower at a site outside Colvale village, and made it clear that they would not allow the proposed tower to be built under any circumstances. They also insisted that they did not want any more mobile towers in the village.
The residents also demanded that local MLA and Fisheries Minister Nilkanth Halarnkar persuade Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and the IT minister to scrap the installation of the mobile tower at the Colvale Sports Complex site.
The villagers have been objecting to the project, claiming that the proposed tower was being installed in a densely populated area and against their wishes.
Government officials who rushed to the site on Thursday in an attempt to pacify the protesters claimed that the company had obtained the necessary permissions for the installation. The officials also maintained that the site was government land.
They reportedly explained that the project had gone through the required approval process and attempted to persuade the protesters to allow the work to continue.
