The Candolim Village Development Committee (VDC) held their first meeting on Wednesday as a part of the process of preparing the final Gram Panchayat Development Plan(GPDP). Villagers were invited and were made to identify their wards and what is in their wards to create a social resource map which will incorporate all the public places, religious sites, ponds rivers etc. Roshan Mathias, member of the Candolim VDC informed Herald that the villagers enjoyed the way the VDC organised the meeting.
The village Survey map was printed on a large flex banner and placed on the ground. This allowed people to stand on the plan, identify parts of their ward, and mark various sites and structures on the map. People were seen engrossed in marking sites as an announcer called villagers one ward at a time. The event was video recorded live on Facebook which went viral on the social media platform. “Democracy is about you participating in making the plan of your village not of somebody sitting in an AC office making their plans of your village”, says Roshan
People will also asked identify certain community specific areas such as fisherfolk community, ST community, migrant slums etc. The next step the VDC plans to take is to ask people what they want projects they want in their ward. This is followed by awareness meeting with specific groups such as youth, women, senior citizens etc when they will be able to suggest specific proposal for their group. “Say women may want cookery cllases on weekends or the youth might want a sports complex. The VDC will have to list such suggestions and convert them into programs, events or projects which includes setting up the infrastructure. It is complete development. Even the poorest of the poor have a say in what they want for their village.”, explains Roshan
The VDC is then responsible to get the technical clearances and other approvals. “This is the process of planning envisaged in the constitution.”, says Roshan. The Panchayat and VSC members along with 100 villagers participated in the event. Herald inquired about the motivation behind organising the event and found out that the Panchayat had received a final memorandum from the BDO asking why action must not be taken against them for not preparing the GPDP. The Panchayat , in response, tried to prepare GPDP in one day without involving the villagers. However, after the initiative of the VDC members, the Panchayat agreed to follow a step by step procedure in preparing a comprehensive village development plan.
