Team Herald
CANDOLIM: On Wednesday, over hundred villagers gathered to prepare their Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) through the Village Development Committee (VDC) of Candolim Village Panchayat. The map of Candolim was printed and people came to identify the resources in their respective village at the Panchayat premises.
A Member of the VDC of Candolim, Roshan Mathias informed that this is the true development plan of the village at the grassroots. Plans once sanctioned here must then be forwarded to the district level and later the government. This is the first step towards the preparation of the GPDP.
“Basically it was the mapping of social resources in the area such as churches, temples, schools, hospitals, roads, forest, public well, rivers etc. It is like a know your village program being carried out. They also located the development or projects sort for in this area. Democracy is all about preparing a plan for your own village and not letting someone else plan it for you. This is not like the ODP and Regional Plan made against the wishes of the people,” told Roshan.
Another local and member of the VDC of Candolim, Regina Fernandes revealed that they gathered to carry out the ward –wise mapping of the village. “Each ward member along with the locals marked the resources available such as churches, ponds, roads in their respective wards. We also identified and marked on the map, the location of farmers and fisherman community. Overall it was a good experience and we are going to have a lot of meetings this week itself,” she told.
A Panch member of Candolim Ward 8, Perpetua Fernandes put forth that this initiative was taken up by the Candolim Panchayat at a VDC meeting held recently. “It was nice to see people gather and actively participate in marking the resources in their wards. I am happy to see the locals who came here actively participate and showed their love and concern for the village,” she told.
