BICHOLIM: Mayem Constituency which is famous for lake and temples still has several issues. The constituency has 28,746 voters of which 14,072 are male and 14,674 are women. Most of the voters are from villages.
The most important issue in the constituency is the custodian issue which the government has tried to solve but the Mayem Bhoo Vimochan Nagrik Kruti Samiti, which is fighting for the issue, claims that not enough has been done to resolve it.
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The custodian issue is related to the land rights of the locals and the people demand that they should be given Class I ownership of the land. Though past governments had tried to resolve the issue through an Act, later not much was done in this regard, say Mayem locals.
The government has been giving sanads to the people but the people feel that the process is very slow.
“Till date 1,140 files have been produced out of which some have single document issue or double document issue. But, even if there are about 1,000 files which can be cleared why the government is taking so long?” asked Samiti Secretary Sakharam Pednekar.
The villager had also demanded for a master plan for Mayem, which is yet to take shape. Besides this, there is also unemployment in the constituency and this issue has been brought in the forefront in the agenda for the elections.
The Mayem Lake which is famous across Goa still needs to be looked after. The upgradation of the lake was done to some extent but people feel that what is done is not enough. The shopkeepers near the lake have demanded they be given space near the lake which is not yet been done.
There are many famous temples in the constituency and the government has tried to develop some of them including that of Vargao in Pilgao, Narve and Shirgao. There is need to include these temples on the tourism map of the State.
There is also a strong demand for the Chorao Bridge which would reduce the distance between the Mayem and Panjim. Several foundation stones were laid but the real work of the bridge is still to begin. There have been assurances to the Mayem voters that during the next term the bridge work would begin.
About 40 per cent of the villagers are dependent upon farming and there are issues related to mining silt which has entered farms. Many people are also dependent upon mining and they have demanded that mining should be resumed at the earliest.
