Team Herald
MARGAO: The people of Davorlim, who willingly gave their land to the government for its various projects that benefitted the villagers, have been demanding that the land under Survey No 16/1 be reserved for the benefit of the villagers, even before government initiated the acquisition process in 2010.
Considering the fact that Davorlim Comunidade and people have willingly given land in the past for various projects that benefitted the people at large, local MLA Luizinho Faleiro opined that the government should listen to the people to understand what their issue is.
Significantly, the Davorlim Dicarpale panchayat records show that the people have been demanding that the land be reserved for the benefit of the local people right from 1983, when at the gram sabha held on February 16, it was unanimously resolved to reserve the land as green belt and given to the villagers to be used as pasture land.
At a gram sabha on March 20, 1994 locals resolved asking the Comunidade to reserve the land to be given to local agricultural tenants but the comunidade did not honour their wishes.
As soon as the notification under Section 6 was published to acquire the land for “multipurpose utility project” 24 villagers including the then deputy Sarpanch and then Attorney of Davorlim Comunidade moved the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court against the acquisition.
Their main grouse was that the acquisition was not in public interest and would not benefit the locals in any manner. However, the government filed affidavits stating that various organisations had approached it to set up educational institutes and also technical training institutes.
The division bench of the Goa Bench of Bombay High Court however dismissed the petition on grounds that the land would not be given to any private builders but would be utilised for public purpose.
In present times too the villagers have been demanding that the land be utilized for the benefit of the locals. At the gram sabha held on February 3, 2013 it was resolved that 10,000 sq mts of the land be reserved for the Holy Cross Chapel existing on the land and the then panchayat body endorsed this resolution at its regular meeting held on March 2, 2013.
At the same gram sabha another resolution was adopted, asking the government to denotify the reservation of 60,000 sq mts of same land for garbage treatment plant, as indicated in the Regional Plan 2011 and instead use the land for projects beneficial to the local people. The panchayat body at its meeting on March 2, endorsed this gram sabha resolution.
Vide another resolution at the same gram sabha it was resolved to have a Sports Village (Complex) on the same land with a provision to give 80 per cent of the jobs to the local people. The panchayat body endorsed this resolution at its meeting held on March 2, 2013.
Besides, at the gram sabha held on August 24, 2014, the villagers resolved to ask the authorities to hand over 5000 sq mts of land to be used to store garbage collected from the village before it was sent off for scientific disposal.
More recently, at the gram sabha held on March 5, 2017 it was resolved to ask the government to allot 20,000 sq mts of the land for Holy Cross Chapel – which is 10,000 sq mts more than what was demanded in 2013 – 5,000 sq mts of land for cattle shed and to bury dead cattle and 5,000 sq mts of land to store garbage.
“As politicians, I think we should listen to the voices of the people, understand what their grouse is and accordingly take necessary action,” said Faleiro, while pointing out that in the past Davorlim comunidade and people had willingly given land for the sake of development.
In fact, two wards of Davorlim have been converted into a Housing Board and today is part of the Rumdamoll Davorlim village panchayat. Besides, there are many grounds built in the village on comunidade land including the 23,000 sq mts playground at Zoriwado.
Both the panchayat ghars of Davorlim Dicarpale and Rumdamoll Davorlim besides the chapel at Dicarpale and the government school have also been constructed on land that was belonging largely to the Davorlim Comunidade.
In fact, at the November 19, 2017 gram sabha, the villagers even asked the panchayat to invite Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and TCP minister Vijai Sardesai to the village to discuss this issue as they wanted to hear the government’s plans.
