MARGAO
Navelkars on Sunday protested against a host of issues plaguing the village, including the underpass of the western bypass passing through Navelim village.
At an awareness meeting held in the village on Sunday evening, the villagers protested against the underpass, saying it is being constructed without taking the convenience and safety of the public into consideration.
The villagers demanded that the underpass be reconstructed as per the original directions of the PWD, a clear height of six meters for the road. Speakers raised apprehensions that the underpass with the existing height will create flooding of the main road like the Comba subway.
The villagers also demanded a stop to all the pollution including sewage flowing into Salpem Tollem fields. They demanded compensation for the affected farmers since the fields have been devastated by sewage.
A resolution adopted at the meeting demanded action against those responsible for the pollution of the once picturesque lake. The resolution further demanded that the fields should be cleaned/desilted and restored back to normal. A demand was also made to record the lake as a wetland under the Wetlands Authority of Goa.
The meeting also adopted a resolution demanding a white paper on the functioning of the STP and to immediately stop releasing raw sewage into river Sal. The resolution also demanded a stop to the never-ending digging work of JICA.
Addressing the meeting, parish priest of Our Lady of Rosary Church, Navelim, Fr Gabriel Coutinho, urged the people to stay united to get the government and the authorities to rectify the underpass.
He feared that the underpass would meet the same fate as that of the Bambolim subway which is inundated with water during monsoons. “We have to stay united to achieve our genuine demand. We should ensure that the votes are not split and rally behind the right people to get our work done. We have to work for the well being of the people,” he said.
Antonio Alvares, petitioner in the Bombay High Court, explained the issue of the Navelim-Sinquetim road underpass at the Zarambo junction. He said the underpass is being built with just 3.5 mts vertical clearance instead of six meters, which will not allow heavy vehicles to ply on the road.
He said the height of the underpass will affect people from Navelim as well as the Benaulim constituency particularly the student community studying in the Rosary Higher Secondary School.
Joseph Vaz, Secretary of the Navelim Civic and Consumer Forum, Royla Fernandes, Sidharth Karapurkar, Elvis Gomes, Eleutioro Carneiro, George Barretto, Anna Carneiro and others spoke at the meeting.
