Churchill hits roadblock

Roar over four-lane new alignment…

Narvekar dares Minister to demolish houses in his constituency

Senior Alemao swears by ‘Kerala Model’

PWD Minister Churchill Alemao told the House yesterday that the new alignment decided for the four-laning of the National Highway 17 would drastically cut down to a meager 188 the number of houses to be demolished. The earlier alignment would have needed 1,400 homes to be razed, he said.
But this explanation could not placate Aldona MLA, Dayanand Narvekar, who vowed to stop demolition of any houses in his constituency and even threatened to drag the government to court during question hour.
The elder Alemao met more than his match in Narvekar who thundered: “I will file a suit against the government. Do you want me to do that when I have a ruling government of my own?”
The issue
Narvekar’s thunder came amidst Alemao sticking to his guns of continuing with the proposed new alignment of the four-lane highway.
The issue came to the fore as the former finance minister sought details of the new four-lane highway in supplementaries to his starred question: “Is the proposed highway six lane or four lane? What are the salient features of the Wilburg-Smith report? Is the setback line along the Canacona-Pernem sector as per the Indian Road Congress?”
Alemao tried to justify the new alignment, citing these reasons: The earlier alignment would have resulted in demolition of 1,400 houses and it was under public pressure that PWD changed the route while acquisition proceedings were in progress. Wilburg and Smith and PWD officials are jointly conducting a survey, which will be complete in two weeks. The setback has been marked at 45 metres from the centre line.”
Alemao also gave a detailed account of the 188 houses that would need to be demolished along the Pernem -- Polem sector of the proposed four-lane highway.


Narvekar declares war

It was precisely at this point that tempers got frayed leading to Narvekar’s threat of dragging the government to court.

While Narvekar wanted to know the setback on the present road as per the National Highway and Indian Road Congress norms, Alemao informed it to be 45 as per the ‘Kerala Model’.
Narvekar lost his cool and pointed out that the setback along the route from O’Coqueiro to Mapusa was reduced at random from 40 to 21 while the officials of the Town and Country Planning Department allowed rampant construction in the existing setback of 40 along the aforesaid sector.
“You are allowing construction of houses in the existing setback while demolishing 24 houses in this sector? How is there a reduction in the existing setback? I will not allow demolition of any houses along this sector. Don’t allow construction in this stretch within the setback area.
You have reduced the setback from 40 to 21. Please withdraw it,” thundered Narvekar to the stunned treasury and opposition benches.

WAR OF WORDS


On the other hand, Alemao stuck to his stand that no NOCs were given to new constructions along this route and vowed to maintain a setback of 45 metres in sync with the ‘Kerala model’.
Alemao claimed these permissions were issued outside the route. At this stage, opposition leader Manohar Parrikar intervened to support Narvekar while demanding the maintenance of the current alignment at its existing width.
“This is a discrepancy. I will file a suit against the government in the court. Do you want me to do this when I have a government of my own?” Narvekar warned.
Speaker Pratapsing Rane bought truce between the warring sides when he asked the PWD Minister to visit the alignment agitating the minds of Narvekar and Parrikar.