the goan I network
MARGAO
Residents of Navelim and Telaulim have threatened to physically block the demolition of the four mundkarial houses at Telaulim scheduled on Friday to make way for the Western bypass without rehabilitating the beleaguered inmates.
Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro even went to the extent of asserting that the government will have to first take the bulldozers over their bodies before razing down the four structures.
That the residents are unhappy over the way the government went about the work became evident when they gave vent to their anger and confronted PWD, NH Executive Engineer Laxmikant Naik on Thursday evening at
the site.
The Navelim MLA along with the residents descended near the mundkarial houses on Thursday following reports that the South Goa demolition squad had fixed demolition operation on Friday.
“These government officers take the sadistic pleasure to disobey the directions issued by incumbent Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and his predecessor Manohar Parrikar, who had given the green signal for the rehabilitation of the inmates of the four houses, meters away from the existing houses,” Faleiro thundered, while issuing a stern warning to the PWD to desist from razing down the four structures under the pretext of High Court order.
“This is like a big joke. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told the PWD Principal Chief Engineer Parsekar to even build outhouses for the four inmates to store their household items and to give them temporary rehabilitation. But, in the name of the High Court, the authorities appears hell bent in razing down the houses in utter disregard to the directions of two Chief Ministers,” he added.
Saying that former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had promised to rehabilitate the inmates of the four mundkarial houses by Christmas in 2017, Faleiro said ‘this is the third Christmas we are celebrating since 2017, but the promised rehabilitation is yet to see the light of day’.
The Navelim MLA recalled that former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had issued directions to the concerned officers to construct the houses of the mundkars and hand them over to them before the Christmas of 2017. Moreover, he pointed out that Parrikar had directed the officials to accommodate them in rental accommodations and the rent to be paid by the government. As per the agreement, land belonging to the Water Resources Department was demarcated and transferred to the PWD to build the houses.
Faleiro, however, said though the WRD land was later filled up at the height of 10 metres, the mud has disappeared from the land in question as a result of which the proposed rehabilitation site has come at the level of the adjoining Telaulim lake.
“I had raised this matter in the Assembly on several occasions. Besides, I personally had meetings with the Chief Minister and the Chief Minister had directed the Principal Chief Engineer to get the four houses for the rehabilitation of the mundkars constructed on rate contract basis through the contractor,” he said.
