the goan I network
MARGAO
Can Benaulim MLA Churchill Alemao convince the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar to meet the demands of his constituents from Benaulim and Seraulim to build the controversial Western bypass passing through the flood plains of these two villages on stilts?
The Benaulim MLA has arranged a meeting of the panchayat members of both Benaulim and Seraulim with PWD Minister Deepak Pauskar on Tuesday with the hope that the people explain to the minister their long-standing demand and hear from him about the government’s constraints to build the bypass on stilts.
This is not the first time that the Benaulim MLA has arranged meetings with the PWD Ministers, right from the time Sudin Dhavalikar was heading the department, but the issue remains unaddressed till date.
Both Sudin and Deepak had in the past expressed their inability to build the Western bypass on stilts because of the resource constraints, with the Centre and Union Minister for Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari turning down the request on more than one occasion.
“I had arranged the meeting of the panch members of the two panchayat bodies and the people of these villages with the PWD Minister to facilitate them to convey their sentiments. I had on several occasions raised the issue with the PWD Minister as well as with the CM, but in vain,” he said, adding “let’s hope that this meeting brings about a solution to the bypass tangle”.
The meeting assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the recent extraordinary gram sabha of the Benaulim panchayat which saw the villagers coming out openly against the construction of the bypass by filling of land.
In fact, the gram sabha had in one voice demanded construction of the bypass on stilts, not only in Benaulim, but in the neighbouring village of Seraulim as well, apprehending largescale flooding and inundation of the low-lying and flood-prone areas of these two villages.
That the two villages of Benaulim and Seraulim have decided to work in tandem and in coordination with each other to get the bypass on stilts has sent clear indications to the government not to take the people for granted.
Besides, Benaulim villagers have also questioned the absence of any underpasses on the two major roads near the Khareband bridge leading to Salcete coastal belt, fearing traffic snarls on the roads after the commissioning of the bypass.
Seraulim villagers too have demanded construction of an underpass near the wholesale fish market, demanding to know why their movement from the village to the city should be regulated by traffic signals when the government should have sanctioned an underpass near the market.
While work on the Western bypass is in full swing between Verna to the wholesale fish market and from Telaulim to Navelim, work on the 2.75 km problematic stretch from Seraulim to Benaulim road has not got underway till date even though the Centre has set December 2020 as the deadline to complete the bypass.
