There seems be no let off by the villagers of areas which will come under the Greater Panjim PDA, even as the TCP Minister has signalled a significant ground shift in moving closer to people’s expectations on the issue of delinking rural villages from the PDA.
The irony lies in the fact that a most unexpected change has happened. In a period which is extremely short relative to the time it normally takes for any agenda of an agitation to be fulfilled, the demand of the villagers to delink most of the village areas from the PDA is very close to being taken.
Out of the nine villages in the Kadamba plateau and five in Bambolim, the TCP might keep the Kadamba plateau villages and Taleigao and delink the rest. This decision itself, it is taken, entirely covers the specific demand of delinking village areas from the PDA.
The villages which are part of the Greater Panjim PDA are Chimbel, Talaulim, Gaulim Moula, Bainguinim Gancim, Azossim, Carambolim, Ella, Bainguinim and Panelim (Kadamba), Calapur, Bambolim, Cujira, Curca and Talaulim (Bambolim).
However the villagers of all the 14 villages have now got together to demand the scrapping the entire PDA, in essence de-notify the newly notified PDA completely and have announced a major agitation on April 6. The TCP meeting will decide on the issue of re-jigging the villages to be included and others excluded is scheduled on March 19.
There are two issues here. The first is getting the government which had firmed up and notified a PDA to actually pay heed to the growing numbers across a swathe of 14 odd villages, who have simply refused to be a part of an urban authority. Ideally, if that’s the way this is going, it may work to let this play out, so that this agitation can go down in history as a successful agitation in the shortest possible time.
The second is the issue of scrapping the PDA itself which the villagers have raised. Again, we need to look at this demand and see if the all or nothing approach works. The two MLAs of St Cruz and St Andre, who went back on their original positions and supported the villagers, are importantly not pressing for the scrapping of the PDA in its entirety and stick to their positions that villages in their constituency should be removed from the PDA.
Meanwhile, the debate over whether PDAs serve any purpose other than being construction or urbanisation facilitators should continue. And it should be a part of a larger introspection on Goa having just one Regional Plan which will cover all areas so that there aren’t multiple planning bodies. Questions over the need to have formed the Greater Panjim PDA can be raised as a part of the wider introspection exercise on the need for PDAs
The villagers of Greater Panjim PDA indeed have a historic chance to drive home a people’s advantage and get their villages delinked from the PDA. As Herald has been advocating, people’s causes have to be bigger than political causes. But here too strategy plays a key part in all agitations. Perhaps the locals should wait for the TCP meeting on March 19, wait for a decision which could well be the delinking of the villages and then get back and decide if they should agitate for the scrapping of the entire PDA. With victory so close in sight, it is important for the Goans of these villages, not to shift the goalposts.
