MARGAO, Feb. 13 -- Team Herald

In a glaring display of institutional apathy, the residents of Primeirovaddo in Velsao find themselves betrayed by the authorities sworn to protect their rights.

As construction machinery roars in their ancestral lands and trucks dump material near their heritage homes, these villagers have exhausted themselves running

from police stations to government offices, from courts to panchayats, only to watch helplessly as each authority systematically fails them. Their crime? Attempting to protect the land they've

legally owned and accessed for over two centuries from railway construction that proceeds without clear ownership documents.

The depth of this institutional betrayal was laid bare again on Thursday ...