TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: A meeting of citizens under the banner of Utorda Gauncho Avaz held on Sunday has vowed to oppose mega housing projects and bungalows in Utorda.
The meeting gave a call to the villagers to save their village from builders and real estate developers.
In his address, Praxedes Fernandes said the Panchayat returned the construction file back to the builder without assigning any reasons, and accused the body for giving the builder an opportunity to enter the village through the back door.
He lamented that the Panchayat did not cite strong grounds for the return of the construction file back to the builder and took strong objection to the casual attitude of the Panchayat body in not making a strong case before the deputy director of Panchayats during the hearing the appeal filed by the builder.
“Construction of the 31 bungalows will only bring in outsiders in the village. The time has come to unitedly protect our village from destruction,” he said.
Addressing the gathering, former Majorda Sarpanch Laxmi Gonsalves said that the TCP cannot approve projects by sitting in their offices, but have to check the ground reality. He said that major housing projects can be stopped by the Panchayat body on grounds of lack of sewage treatment, garbage disposal etc.
“In the absence of garbage disposal, plastic and other waste is found dumped in the fields and water bodies in the village”, she said.
A villager Sebastiao D’Costa said housing projects in the village have disturbed the life of the villagers, with the projects bringing in outsiders. “These project is affecting our demography, our culture and our village life. We have to oppose these projects no matter what the TCP and the Panchayat Director says”, he said, while making a fervent plea to the villagers to come together and oppose the housing projects.
The meeting was addressed by activists Judith Almeida, Mahesh Nayak, Felix Dias, Juliet Rodrigues and others.
