MARGAO
Upping the ante against the proposed State highway passing through Chandor and Guirdolim, villagers of Chandor-Guirdolim-Cavorim called on TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai with a plea to withdraw the letter written by Chief Town Planner C Puttaraju showing the proposed highway passing through these villages.
After giving a patient hearing to the villagers, the TCP Minister spoke to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar over the phone, pressing the demand for the de-notification of the proposed State highway passing through these villages.
"The Chief Minister has given positive signal on the de-notification of the State highway passing through Chandor. He has only said the government will de-notify the highway passing through Chandor around the same time when the government notifies the new State highway," Sardesai told the media after his meeting with the villagers.
He said the villagers have approached me with maps of the Regional Plan, showing how the Chief Town Planner had misled the government by wrongly showing the highway passing through Chandor. "The villagers have proved the TCP letter wrong. They have substantiated their claim that the Chief Town Planner had written the letter to mislead the government. They want me to make necessary amends," he said, while promising that he would act on the issue by next week.
Sardesai said that he would take a delegation of the villagers of Chandor, Cavorim and Guirdolim to the Chief Minister, if required, saying he would immediately put up a note to the Chief Minister on the issue.
Former Guirdolim Sarpanch Agostinho Antao explained the TCP Minister how the CTP letter had wrongly shown the State highway when an earlier government notification clearly showed that the highway was passing through Rawanfond, Areal, Quepem and Curchorem.
Antao later told the media that the villagers have drawn attention of all concerned, right from the Chief Minister to the TCP Minster and other officials that all the regional plans, be it 2001, 2011 and 2021 have shown SH8 highway goes from Rawanfond, Areal, Paroda, Xeldem, Quepem and Curchorem have a width of 30 metres. The road passing through Guirdolim and Chandor is only shown as a MDR," Antao later told
the media.
