the goan I network
MARGAO
Has the government done a turnaround on its promise to build the balance 2.75 km stretch of the Western bypass passing through the flood plains of River Sal on stilts when the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had handed out a promise in the July session of the Goa Legislative Assembly that the bypass would be built on stilts?
This question has come to the fore during the weekend when the Chief Minister during his visit to Nuvem on Sunday virtually ruled out the possibility of building the 2.75 km of the bypass on stilts, ostensibly because of the financial implications.
While the Chief Minister had assured the House to even get funds from the Centre or use NHAI special provision to get the funds or use the State funds to build the bypass on stilts, Sawant’s reply to the media on Sunday that the government would put in place additional water drainage, including wide culverts, suggests that the government has done a turnaround on its promise to build the bypass on stilts.
Taking strong objection to the Chief Minister’s latest stand on the Western bypass, Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai said the very same Chief Minister had assured the Legislators on the floor of the House that the remaining phase of the bypass would be put in place on stilts to ensure smooth flow of rain water. “The Chief Minister had made the promise on the floor of the House that balance portion of the bypass would be built on stilts. Now, the Chief Minister speaks of going ahead with the bypass sans stilts with additional drainage measure,” he said.
He pointed out though 10 Congress MLAs have jumped into the BJP, the Legislative Assembly is a Temple of democracy. “The Assembly is like a Temple, Church or a Masjid. You cannot fool the House and if you fool the House, it is betraying God,” he asserted.
On Sunday, the Chief Minister had virtually ruled out the possibility of building the balance portion of the 2.75 km of the Western bypass on stilts when the Chairman of Nuvem Bio-diversity Committee, Jose Roque Andrade demanded to know the status of the 2.75 km stretch of the western bypass.
He, however, had sought to allay apprehensions of flooding, promising to lay additional drainage, with wide culverts for the drainage of rain water.
The government has so far completed the Verna-Nuvem stretch of the Western bypass up to the wholesale fish market at Seraulim. Residents of Seraulim along with their Benaulim counterparts have been vehemently objecting to any plan to construct the bypass with land filling along the problematic 2.75 kms, between the wholesale sale fish market and the Varca road at Benaulim on the apprehension that the land filling will displace the rain water in the low-lying and wet lands and inundate these villages.
