The Chief Minister Pramod Sawant late last week met a delegation of Bhoma villagers who are apprehensive that work on the highway expansion project would threaten not just the temple in honour of the local deity but also their homes and houses that they have spent years building. The Chief Minister in response sought to reassure the delegation that not a single home nor the temple would be at risk from the highway expansion. It was a similar tune that was sung by local MLA and Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude who claimed that those protesting against the highway were being misled by some nefarious elements who were out to spark fear in the minds of locals and get them to oppose the project.
Irrespective of the assurances, the villagers of Bhoma have stuck to their guns. They demanded that the Goa government realign the highway along a bypass that goes beyond the village — a bypass that has been earmarked on the Regional Plan 2021 and one that the villagers say will harm no one, least of all their homes and the temple. And not without reason. The state of Goa is littered with examples of the government promising that there will be no damage only to then, renege on their promises once the work has begun and say that certain demolitions were inevitable.
From Porvorim to Benaulim and Pernem to Agassaim people have lost homes, religious structures and the like after holding on to hope of government assurances that no damage will be done. Bhoma’s case is even worse. When the alignment of the highway was first drawn back in 2009, during the reign of Digambar Kamat as Chief Minister and Churchill Alemao as PWD Minister, the BJP was at the forefront against the highway expansion — organising and coordinating with the villagers in what was a massive protest against the government. It is the same BJP that is now telling the people of Bhoma that they do not need to worry and that their homes and temples will not be touched.
Who should the poor folk of Bhoma believe? The BJP who told them to protest against the highway expansion saying that it threatens their homes and the village’s character, or the BJP that is now taking forward that same project but telling them that it will not be at risk from the highway expansion.
The people of Mapusa have learnt this the hard way. Despite being repeatedly reassured that the highway expansion would afford them adequate underpasses to travel from one side to another, the government went on to ignore their pleas for an underpass to connect Pernem which has today become a major cause for congestion. It was a similar story for the people of Guirim. Despite the local villagers warning that the manner in which the highway was being built threatened to flood the fields and submerge the roads, the warnings were ignored and today flooding in Guirim has become an annual affair.
The government must pay heed to local knowledge and know-how instead of simply bulldozing its way through just because they have the money to do it. At the end of the day, the ones who will have to live with the government’s bad decisions are the people of the village and not the decision-makers. People have every right to protest and be heard.
