ROQUE DIAS | NT
Margao: The state government is pushing through a survey to map marginal bunds and sluice gates across the state, amidst the coronavirus pandemic and heavy rainfall.
A related order issued by the authorities says the survey work should begin on June 17 and must be completed by June 30.
Observers alleged that the survey has been aimed at buttressing the controversial coastal zone management plan.
Bunds are protective belts around rivers, and sluice gates help control water level and flows into rivers and canals helping maintain salinity.
Superintendent engineer, circle I, Pramod Badami issued the order forming survey teams. Each team consists of a WRD engineer, a member of the local biodiversity management committee and an engineer of the soil conservation division of the agriculture department.
Executive engineers and assistant engineers of the concerned division have also been instructed to provide necessary support to surveyors.
Hundreds of villages will be visited for mapping the bunds and sluice gates.
Badami acknowledged that there will be tremendous pressure on the survey teams to complete the work in just 13 days.
When asked whether the rainy season is the right time for mapping the bunds and sluice gates, Badami said, “We have several field staffers… We will surely complete the survey within the stipulated 13 days.’’
A report of the survey will be submitted to the environment department, which has initialised the study.
Interestingly, though the survey was supposed to start as per the order from June 17, in reality it is yet to begin.
The executive engineers have not yet held any meeting with BMC members or with soil conservators.
BMC members said that this is not the right time to visit the bunds and sluice gates, which have been inundated.
Joaquim Santano Rodrigues of Curtorim BMC said that they should have been be intimated much in advance.
“Rainy season is not the right time to visit the bunds, as pathways leading to them are blocked, and most of the time bunds give in due to downpour. If the government had been really serious in involving the BMCs then it would have informed us well in advance,” Rodrigues reckoned.
A BMC member from Loutolim also argued that ‘ground toothing’ of the bunds and sluice gates require more time.
“This cannot be done in the midst of the COVID crisis. We do not know why the government is pushing through the survey. Such mapping of marginal bunds can wait for some months,” he said.
A woman BMC member of a coastal village said that one person would not be able to take the team around the bunds and sluice gates, adding that the Section 144 is in force, which prohibits gathering of more than five people.