Goa has a very distinct trait: giving a political hue or overtone to any subject or issue in discussion.
Take the Mhadei issue, for instance. No sooner the Karnataka polls got done and dusted, Goa’s ‘Mhadei amchi mai’ brigade has forgotten the water diversion issue and their ‘mai’ too.
It’s therefore not surprising that a dollop of politics has crept into the whole highway expansion imbroglio at Bhoma.
With the ground heating up in Bhoma village, which otherwise is a stronghold of the ruling party, PWD Minister Nilesh Cabral jumped in to trouble-shoot and assured that the two temples in the village will be untouched. He also via a power-point presentation took pains to explain that the highway will scalp on four houses which are being rehabilitated in the village itself.
A day earlier, the Bhoma locals had publicly warned the ruling dispensation that their support at the Lok Sabha elections will be dependent on whether their demand for a bypass is accepted or not. So they are now in no mood to relent, perhaps aware that the worth of their votes, is their best bet to get the government to bend.
