Construction of the Margao Western bypass came in for strong opposition from Navelim villagers on Wednesday, as they urged local MLA and Fisheries Minister, Avertano Furtado to halt the ongoing work of land filling in the village by Thursday.
Avertano apparently found himself in a piquant situation over the villagers’ demand since he had given his nod for the land filling of the project in his Navelim constituency a fortnight ago at a meeting of Salcete MLAs called by the PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar in the South district Collectorate.
At that meeting, Avertano had given his nod to the PWD Minister on the condition that the contractor builds additional culverts in low-lying areas along the alignment passing through his constituency. However, at a meeting of villagers held at Navelim panchayat hall on Wednesday, villagers opposed the construction of the bypass in Navelim village. Hands went up in the hall as the villagers raised opposed the bypass through the village, with a plea to the Minister to take up the matter with the Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar and get the work stopped forthwith.
The villagers also told Avertano to accompany them to the land filling site on Thursday morning to convey a message to the contractor to stop the ongoing work immediately.
Later briefing the media, Avertano said that the villagers have maintained that the government should either construct the bypass on stilts or scrap the project entirely.
“I am also supporting the stand of the villagers since the bypass is passing through the low-lying areas of the village,” Avertano said.
When asked whether he would quit the Ministry if the BJP government fails to pay heed to the people’s sentiments, Avertano said the question of resigning does not arise at this stage.
Earlier, the villagers demanded that the Fisheries Minister should stand by them and get the bypass project stopped immediately. Speaking on the occasion, a villager, Herald Pinto said the Minister should resign if the BJP government does not stop the land filling work immediately.
Navelim parish priest Fr Rock Gonsalves, Navelim sarpanch Frank Fernandes and Nagmodem panch also attended the meeting. In his brief address, Fr Gonsalves sought to know whether the existing road is being taken up for road widening if the government is also constructing the bypass and whether the bypass is only being constructed at Navelim-Margao or on the entire stretch of the NH-17.
Siddarth Karapurkar pointed out that the government is rushing with the bypass project to facilitate the proposed construction of the new airport at Mopa.
