the goan I network
MARGAO
It is just over two months when PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar made a fervent plea to the Saxttikars to allow work on the western bypass without stilts, promising that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari would come rushing to the rescue of the people if the bypass resulted in inundation of the flood plains of River Sal. Unfortunately, just as feared by the villagers the low lying areas lie submerged with just two days of rainfall after the heavens opened up. The moot question now is, will Gadkari or Sudin along with his team of PWD officials, including NH-17officials rush to the rescue of Mungul on the Margao-Colva road?
Low lying fields of Mungul, the water catchment areas and the flood plains of river Sal remained inundated with rain water. This is the spot where Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar along with TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai, MLAs Churchill Alemao and Luizinho Faleiro descended at Mungul on the Colva-Margao road to work out a solution to the demand of villagers for construction of bypass on stilts.
While the Chief Minister had visited at the spot during winter season, the government and the PWD Minister can now have a clear insight of the entire area, right from Seraulim, Mungul and Benaulim considered the water catchment areas of river Sal. While the Chief Minister and the PWD Minister have maintained that desilting of the river Sal can take care of the inundation of the water catchment area of Seraulim and Benaulim, villagers have disputed their claim, saying that the low lying areas have been acting as water catchment for the rain water, flowing down, right from Verna, Nuvem, Betalbatim and other villages.
