Goemkarponn Desk
MARGAO: Manoj Kumar, an emissary of Union Minister for Road Surface Transport Nitin Gadkari, and PWD officials arrived in Loutolim to hold talks with farmers who are against the new high-level Borim bridge crossing over the Khazan fields. The goal of the discussions was to find a solution regarding the bridge’s alignment.
Kumar—who is presumably the Union Minister’s office protocol officer—said the government will make a final decision regarding the bridge alignment following talks with the farmer representatives led by Alberto Pinheiro, Chairman of the Tenants Association.
Regarding a resolution to the bridge alignment, Kumar stated that he is unable to say at this time. “We’ve listened to the farmers’ complaints. We’ll talk about this more later. It’s going to take time. Kumar stated, “The government will make a decision.
He went on to say that the officials’ team now understood the problem that the farmers had brought up. We have seen the soil sample, but there is an engineering solution to the problem, Kumar retorted to a villager who asked if he had seen the soil of the khazan fields. An engineering solution is the answer to soil problems. However, the villager stated that they have no interest in giving up their fields for the bridge that is being proposed.
Albert Pinheiro, the chairman of the Loutolim Tenants Association, informed Kumar and his group that the farmers do not agree with Gadkari’s proposal to narrow the bridge that crosses the khazans. In the event that the government chooses to narrow the bridge from 60 meters to 30 meters, some farmers will be negatively impacted and may lose their means of subsistence. The khazan fields provide a meagre livelihood for about 400 farmers. He informed the team that they would starve to death.
Pinheiro called the team’s attention to the fact that construction is prohibited in the Khazan fields by CRZ regulations. Pinheiro said, “People say the new Borim bridge will not destroy a single house, but we would like to ask whether any house can be built in a khazan land.” He was demanding to know if bridges had been built anywhere through the khazans.
