Goemkarponn Desk
VELSAO: Locals of Velsao along with Velsao Sarpanch Diana Gouveia, Former MLA Alina Saldanha, Congress leader Olencio Simoes, Goencho Ekvott founder member Orville Dourado and others on Saturday afternoon gave a four day ultimatum to Mormugao Dy Collector Ravishekar Nippanikar to act on the alleged encroachment carried out by Railway authorities.
While the delegation of leaders claimed that there was a possibility of the third track in the area, the villagers claimed that the Railways had carried out blatant violation of the law by carrying out encroachment in the local properties to carry out work.
Congress leader Olencio Simoes said that the Mormugao Dy Collector was silent as the railways carried out Dadagiri by carrying out the works under police protection.
“We have told several times and written many letters to the Dy Collector asking him for a joint inspection and survey of the land so that the issue is clarified. The panchayat and land owners carried out a survey of their land and it is now clear that Railways have encroached into private lands,” said Simoes.
He said that the railways are exposed and we are offering a 4 day ultimatum to the to Dy Collector to check on Railway encroachment because they are fearlessly carrying out illegalities and criminally trespassing into private properties.
“We are warning that in case no action is taken , the entire village will bring a morcha to the Dy Collector office and thetre will be law and order situation” he added
Goencho Ekvott founder member Orville Dourado said that the Railway works was illegal and posed a danger to the village.
“The panchayat had a complain from Barbosa family in the 1st week of January that the railways has entered in their property and carrying out the work after which the panchayat issued a stop notice and the Railways stoped the work because the panchayat asked for the land documents of the Railways,” said Orville
Dourado said that the work was stopped for around four weeks but has begun now in full force and when we met the police , they said that we cannot stop the work because we don’t have proof of illegalities
He said that the land owners even carried out a survey with a private surveyor to find that Railways was around 1.5 metres inside private land.
“We met the Railways authorities who say that they have taken construction based on some stone which they claim to be theirs. The railways have buried our storm drains and land filled our culverts and this will creat issues for the village as well” said Dourado