NAVIN JHA
VASCO: For the last 20 odd years, the village of Sancoale is paying for being financially well off. At times the village becomes part of Vasco da Gama planning area and at other time comes under the Town and Country Planning (TCP) department. This has been going on for two decades with the village slowly moving into the hands of land sharks with pristine areas falling into the hands of builders.
“We want Sancoale in the PDA only because Mormugao land is locked with the Navy and MPT having maximum land with them and very few other villages in the taluka can be developed,” a Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA) official told Herald.
For MPDA, Sancoale is the biggest revenue earning village and since the time the village was withdrawn from the Vasco da Gama planning area, along with Issorcim, MPDA has been facing a tough time even in releasing staff salaries.
“This is our only concern and thus we have now decided to again write to the government to include the twin villages (Sancoale and Issorcim) within the jurisdiction of the planning area,” said MPDA Chairman and Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida.
Sources said Almeida is making strong moves to ensure that these twin villages are included in the PDA and claims that with the move the PDA revenue receipts will increase by another Rs 40 to 45 lakh per annum.
Almeida will, however, face a major road block as Environment minister and Cortalim MLA Alina Saldanha is against any such move. In this political game, that is not entirely new, the view of the local panchayat has been kept aside, due to which Sancoale in the past has been part and also got apart from PDA on more than two occasions.
“This removal of Sancoale was done after some locals protested the inclusion of their village areas in the jurisdiction of the PDA and after considering the issue, the government decided to withdraw the two villages from the planning area. This left the PDA to face a severe financial crunch,” said former MPDA chairman Krishna Salkar.
In the last 26 months (since Sancoale and Issorcim were withdrawn), MPDA has made serious attempts to see that the village returns to the PDA which is presently struggling to pay staff salaries and has sought financial aid twice in the last one year.
“The issue of financial crunch was raised at the board meeting where it was decided to place the matter before the State government. This was done but is yet to receive government’s consent,” Salkar said.
Whether Sancoale will be the next Calangute-Candolim, where politicians have allegedly made moves to include the Bardez coastal villages in the PDA to gain control over them or Almeida’s effort is for genuine financial reasons and not to gain control, only time will tell. For now, the people of Sancoale and Issorcim are unhappy with the way government is playing a game with them.
