Allege politics being played to link flooding to railway works
VASCO
A group of locals from Velsao on Thursday wrote to the Velsao Panchayat and MLA Anton Vas requesting help in clearing the accumulated saline water from the creek back into the sea.
They decried attempts being made by some activists to play politics by not allowing the water to be cleared and trying to link the flooding to the railway works.
Speaking to media, Aliston Pinto said saline water had entered the creek (Poim) due to high tide.
“This is a natural occurence that happens regularly, at least once a month, and the high water level needs to be released back to the Arabian sea by opening the mouth of the creek,” said Pinto.
“In the past, locals used to get together and manually open the mouth of the creek but in the recent past they sought help from the panchayat or Anton Vas, who was the ZP of this area, to release the water using a JCB. This accumulated water creates havoc as the water enters properties adjoining the Poim.”
“I have my canoes on the beach and we cannot reach there due to the accumulated saline water. I went to railway authorities nearby to ask them for the JCB to open the mouth and they arrived with the police and held an inspection at this site but they said it was out of their ambit.”
Pinto then arranged for a JCB but the JCB was stopped by the locals and the JCB owner said that he was called by the sarpanch.
“I later went to the Sarpanch and explained to her my difficulties, but she said to give her an application after which she would take a resolution. This has shocked me because we never heard of any resolution requiring to open the mouth of the creek which has been done for several years now,” said Pinto.
“Local leaders are trying to play dirty politics with this saline water. We don’t have any political affiliation and have nothing to do with double tracking.”
“I had contacted MLA Anton Vas and he was willing to help me but these activists do not want to open this mouth of the creek. They want to show that the flooding is due to the works carried out by the Railways at the Poim,” said Pinto.
