BICHOLIM: The villages of Karapur, Siolim and Nerul at the gram sabhas held on Sunday unanimously rejected the government’s proposal to elevate their villages as urban area.
Karapur-Sarvan held a special gram sabha in the panchayat hall to discuss the issue wherein the villagers including the sarpanch expressed surprise over the move of the government. The villagers demanded to know whether the panchayat was informed about the move and why they did not oppose the same.
Sarpanch Sushma Sawant said that the panchayat was not taken into confidence before issuing the notification proposing to elevate the village as urban area.
“We were surprised to know that in the list of 56 villages, Karapur is also included. After this news spread in the village, many of villagers approached us demanding to have a special gram sabha,” Sawant said.
She said that the panchayat is with the villagers and that the elected representatives strongly oppose the proposal to declare the village as urban area. “The government should have first intimated us, but they did not take us into confidence. It is a big question mark as to why they did it keeping us in dark,” Sawant said.
Pointing out that except Karapur-Tisk, all other parts of village have farm lands, kulagars and khazan land, she demanded the village be excluded from the proposal.
Villager Manoj Sawant alleged that some politicians have purchased land in the village and this, he inferred, could be the reason why the government wants to declare the village as urban area.
“The benefit of all this will be for the ministers and not for common man. Today most of the land in Karapur is agricultural and after urbanisation this land will get converted,” Manoj said and accused the government of favouring the “land mafia” in the village.
The meeting ended with the villagers adopting a resolution rejecting the proposal to elevate the village as urban area. They also demanded that Mayem MLA Pravin Zantye to support them.
Meanwhile, the panchayats of Siolim and Nerul at their gram sabhas, also adopted resolutions rejecting the proposal to elevate their villages as urban areas.
Nerul villagers said that the village is already facing water shortage and constant power fluctuation; and if the village is given urban status, the situation would become bad to worse.
The villagers said that by declaring Nerul as urban area, the government is trying to destroy the identity of the village.