VASCO
Goencho Ekvott members and other local villagers, including Velsao Sarpanch Diana Gouveia, on Saturday, accused the Railways of blocking the tributaries of River Sal and natural drains as part of double tracking works.
Villagers feared that blocking of tributaries would lead to flood-like situations in the village, as the waterway is connected to the sea.
The Goencho Ekvott also alleged that ex-Panch Ashok Souza, who is also Vice-Chairman of Goencho Ekvott, was threatened by the police.
Goencho Ekvott Founder Member Orville Dourado Rodrigues claimed that the RVNL with the tacit support of Goa Police placed two concrete pipes in the path of the natural flow/tidal movements adjacent to an over 133-year-old masonry culvert on which are laid the existing railway track.
He said the work was done despite stiff opposition from locals who spontaneously gathered at the site of the tributary of the river Sal on noticing the construction activity.
“Previously, RVNL has dumped hundreds of truckloads of soil and industrial rejects in the stormwater drain for the past 3 months. Complaints to relevant authorities have not brought any relief to the local villagers,” said Rodrigues.
“Such brazen acts of forceful construction without even conducting the required Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) nor Social Impact Assessment (SIA) will in the days to come bring untold miseries in the form of flash floods during the monsoons.”
“There are over 400 families on either side of existing railway tracks and for most of these, sustenance is either through paddy cultivation or coconut farming, both of which will be history if the ingress of saline water breaches the man-made embankments as a result of the unscientific, haphazard and illegal construction activities in Velsao, Pale and Issorcim by RVNL,” said Rodrigues.
