STP is being forced on us: Calangute locals

SALIGAO: The setting up of the sewage treatment plant (STP) in Calangute has run into rough weather yet again, this time after locals of Naikavaddo raised objections to the pumping station citing reasons right from the ward being a residential area to the polluting effects the plant would have.

The residents also alleged that the authorities decided on the location without taking them into confidence.

“Few days ago, an excavator was brought in for the work, but locals protested and it was taken away,” sources said, claiming that the pumping station is being set up in around 400sqm of temple property.

Earlier, protests by locals had seen the location for the STP being moved from Gauravaddo to another ward in the village and then finally to Naikavaddo.

A resident of Naikawaddo said that despite filing two complaints before the panchayat, “the authorities with panchayat members and police come and forcefully measure the land” adding that the locals were opposed to such high-handedness.

Allwyn Fernandes, a resident, said the panchayat decided without taking the ward member into confidence.

“The NOC was given by deputy sarpanch Sudesh Mayenkar when sarpanch Shawn Martins had gone on leave,” he said. Among other concerns is that there will be noise and air pollution. There are fears that a well in the vicinity, which the locals depend on because of the poor PWD supply, will be polluted.

“If the pumping station overflows, the water will enter my house,” Carmin Fernandes, a senior citizen, said.

Mayenkar said, “We will not bend to a few people. Let them go to court and get a stay. The property belongs to the Shantadurga temple committee, which has given us land. The pumping station will go ahead.”