MARGAO, JUNE 12
Village Groups of Goa have warned the government not to take the NGOs fighting to save and protect Goa from destruction for granted any more.
Representatives of various village groups have cautioned that they will no longer take things lying down if the government is hell bent in destroying the State.
Briefing newsmen, the village groups questioned Cortalim MLA Mauvin Godinho for his remarks on the NGOs and reminded him that the recent clearance given to housing projects in Chicalim and Sancoale would alter the demography of these two villages.
Edwin Mascarenhas said the allegations made by the Cortalim MLA against the NGOs relating of the Chicalim park are false and baseless.
He said the village groups of Goa had inspected illegalities in Cortalim on the occasion of World Environment Day and found many illegalities, including hill cutting near Upasnagar. “I fail to understand why Godinho is so aggressive when the NGOs are only exposing the illegalities. The MLA should name the person from the local NGO involved in illegalities”, he added.
Mascarenhas took strong exception to the government decision to include the villages of Mormugao Taluka under the purview of the Planning and Development Authority. “The villagers have been deprived of our right in participatory planning. Our villages should be immediately excluded from the PDA and allow the villagers to participate in the Regional Plan 2021”, he demanded.
Saying that the PDA has been imposed on the villagers, Mascarenhas sough to know why the local MLA is so adamant to include the villages under the PDA. He alleged that the PDA has done planning in some pockets of the Taluka only to suit certain people. For instance, he said C1 zones have been earmarked behind BITS Pilani and near the old grazing ground, adding that records indicate that only the real estate developers will benefit from the zone changes. “These zone changes will not suit the growth of the local people, it will only suit the requirements of the builders”, he said, adding that the government ought to first develop basic infrastructure including power, garbage disposal and water supply.
He feared that the population of Chicalim village would increase by two-fold in the next 2-3 years once the construction plans approved by the authorities takes concrete shape.
Edwin Pinto said the slum at Zuari Nagar is housing approximately 40,000 population, but lamented that there’s no basic sanitation facilities, thus polluting the ground water.
He demanded to know the connection between the MLAs and the real estate developers, be it in Carmona, Chicalim etc and charged the elected representatives for promoting and protecting mega housing societies. “Our MLAs are destroying Goa. The people will have no option than to come on the streets and stop the destruction of Goa”, he warned.
Judith Almeida and Crydon Madeira also spoke.
