the goan I network
MARGAO
Who’s responsible for the inordinate delay in the payment of compensation to the land owners, number around 50 from Navelim in lieu of the land they lost for the widening of the NH-17 between Navelim Church and at the Western bypass junction near the Renault showroom?
Even as the PWD, National Highway is erecting dividers along the four-lane road, land owners, who have lost their land, have been high and dry till date, with no compensation forthcoming from the PWD or the land acquisition office till date.
What’s interesting to note here is that the overwhelming majority of land owners had given their NOCs to the government to start work on the project before the commencement of the Land Acquisition proceedings, with the assumption that compensation will follow soon. Work on the project had commenced way back on December 1, 2015 based on the NOCs issued by the land owners, but not a single land owner has received the promised compensation for reasons best known to the Revenue and PWD officials.
A PWD official informed that the land acquisition compensation works out around Rs 20 crore, adding that the compensation amount is presently deposited with the EDC as the land acquisition proceedings initiated by the Revenue officials in the district Collectorate remains inconclusive till date.
The Goan understands that the land in question was sought to be procured as per the Land Procurement policy framed by the Goa government with the consent of the owners. The total area which has been taken possession by the PWD admeasures around 10,000 square meters and covers a distance of around one kilometer, around 800 meters to be precise.
Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro has slammed officials involved in land acquisition for the delay in compensating the land losers.
“The road between the Navelim Church and Western bypass junction has been broadened, but the land losers have not received the promised compensation. The land losers have given their land voluntarily to the government for road widening. Their compound walls and even a house structure was demolished to make way for the road widening, but they have not been paid till date,” Faleiro added.
The Navelim MLA wondered whether there’s no trained land acquisition officer at the district Collector to expedite the compensation to the beleaguered land losers, even he requested the government to intervene and resolve the compensation issue once and for all.
The road widening project along the “killer road” was mooted during the tenure of former Fisheries Minister Avertano Furtado, who had used his personal rapport with the land owners to
part away with their land so that the PWD, NH can kickstart the work without any delay.
Though work on the Rs 20.5 crore project began in December 2015 and was expected to be complete in all respects by May 2016, the road widening project dragged on till recently, with the PWD now on the job to erect road dividers along the stretch.
