OLD GOA/ PANAJI: The resistance to the highway expansion project at Bhoma erupted again on Sunday with the people from the village holding a public meeting to show support for their demand for either a realignment or a flyover to save their homes and a temple.
Sunday’s meeting, interestingly, attracted the attention of politicians of diverse hues -- MLAs Vijai Sardesai (Fatorda) and Viresh Borkar (St Andre) – extending support to Bhoma locals have demanded that the government should build a bypass as earmarked in the Regional Plan to save the houses and temples from demolition.
Government firm on going ahead with MORTH
The government so far has not yielded to the local demands and is firm on going ahead with the MORTH plans of widening the highway citing technical and logistic reasons to consider the local demands.
Speaking at a public meeting held at Bhoma, on Sunday, GFP president Vijai Sardessai said that his party will stand by the Bhoma locals in opposition to the highway expansion project. “There is an alternate bypass road which is earmarked on the Regional Plan and I had spoken to Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari who had assured that the demand of the locals for a bypass would be met,” Sardesai informed.
“However, there are vested interests within the State BJP government which are working towards saving someone’s property passing through the bypass road,” Sardesai added.
BJP criticized for biased 'Hindutva'
The GFP president also lambasted the BJP for talking big about Hindutva on one side and on the other side, planning to destroy Hindu temples and Hindu houses just to protect the interests of a businessman. RGP MLA Viresh Borkar, too, slammed the BJP for planning to demolish the houses and temples of Hindus when it talks big about Hindutva. “What kind of Hindutva is this?” he posed.
Borkar then chided the government for its plan to demolish the houses of Goans which could very well be saved by building of a bypass road.
“There is an alternative but this government is not interested in implementing it as it wants to save the property of one individual,” Borkar said.
