Following a spate of gram sabha meets and the renewed concerns of mega building projects in villages reverberating in gram sabhas especially in Salcete taluka, the government, with its recent advisory from the Town and Country Planning Department seems to be attempting to stop the people’s juggernaut from rolling yet again. Gram sabhas across many villages in Goa are taking a stand yet again since protests erupted in 2007, against mega project constructions, mushrooming as part of the real estate construction and speculation boom.
The TCP in consultation with government has now issued a notice to the directorate of panchayats stating there is no provision in the Goa Panchayati Act that allow gram sabhas to either grant or revoke construction licenses or interfere with construction permissions granted. Section 6 (4) of the Act says decisions taken by the gram sabha are binding and final on the panchayat. With this recent notification, garnered on the basis of (unspecified) “legal opinion”, the TCP seeks to clarify that granting or revoking construction licenses ~ that most precious power that panchayats solely hold and that have unfortunately become a power/corruption magnet ~ lies with the panchayats only. The gram sabhas have no say in this, the TCP has pointed out.
Activists and village groups are ready to join issue with this latest notification, arguing that the supremacy of the gram sabha flows from the 73rd Constitution amendment. Any gram sabha resolution that is not illegal and correct in law is binding on the panchayat, they say. They allege the TCP is batting in this case in favour of the builders who have run up against the tenacity of village gram sabhas that are beginning to assert themselves against mega projects once again. Supporters of the move, on the other hand, claim that the TCP through its advisory is only aiming to prevent duly elected panchayats from being railroaded into submission by local vested interests in gram sabhas who want to stop all real estate development, even that which is legal, by raising the bogey of “mega projects”.
Some panchayats, however, have had to pay heed to the gram sabha when the objections raised by the latter have been valid and correct in law, and that is to be welcomed. What is worrying is that some other panchayats, not surprisingly mainly in the coastal areas, go ahead and ignore gram sabha resolutions given that monetary stakes in coastal real estate are exceptionally high and the local vested interests in these cases are usually much more powerful and are often backed by political clout. Also not surprisingly, some leading light sarpanchas are defending the supremacy of the panchayat body over the gram sabha. This is akin to MLAs saying they are above the people who elected them.
Either way, this is a battle that can only heat up as Goa’s mercury soars, the gram sabha and the panchayat each asserting its supremacy ~ the electorate asserting its hold over elected, as it were. In all this it would seem that village Goa is making its last stand to preserve itself, going by the statements recently articulated by concerned villagers in the north Goa village of Corlim. Contrast this with the government’s plans for several bridges, expansion of highways and bypasses, the focus on major infrastructure from roads to airports, and the chasm between the two perspectives is glaring. One stands for preserving all that is existing and unique, keeping village Goa the way it is; the other seeks to grab the opportunities ~ and pitfalls ~ of the rising economic tide. One wants to retain the Goa we know, the other to dramatically alter it.
Quo Vadis Goa?
