PANJIM: Goa faces its own tryst with destiny as the special gram sabhas scheduled on Monday across the State will take up the issue of people’s inputs towards the draft Agriculture policy, while some of villagers feel that government should have asked the panchayats to convene extraordinary gram sabhas to discuss the policy.
Former Socorro panchayat member Soter D’Souza said that he is of the opinion that the government should have asked the panchayats to convene extraordinary gram sabhas to discuss the Agriculture Policy. “My personal view is that special gram sabha is called to commemorate Gandhi Jayanti and it would be appropriate to highlight Gandhiji’s ideas and teachings. By bringing two issues in one meeting are formality and the mischievous move of the government to divert the focus from Gandhiji’s ideals. This sort of precedence will further abuse the panchayati raj in the State,” he said adding that there is a provision in the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, to convene extraordinary gram sabha. The government’s move is nothing but an attempt to sideline the significance of Gandhi Jayanti.
Similar view was expressed by Fredy Travasso, a villager of Sao Jose de Areal.
He sought to know whether the panchayat members had knowledge of the agriculture policy. According to him, most villagers are not aware of the issue as the panchayat failed to create awareness about the special gram sabha to discuss agriculture policy.
He said that there was no announcement in the church nor did the panchayat use public address systems in this regard. First of all, villagers’ attendance is always poor for special gram sabha unless efforts are made to mobilise them.
Travasso pointed out that being Gandhi Jayanti day several activities are planned across the state wherein Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will go live at 10 am followed by cleanliness drive. In such a situation there will be no adequate time available to discuss the agriculture bill, he said, adding that the panchayats should convene extraordinary gram sabhas to discuss a single-point agenda. He has appealed to the villagers to attend the sabha to save the agricultural lands in the village.
Varca’s former deputy sarpanch Filastro Cardozo said, “I have my doubts whether the government is serious in discussing the agriculture bill and it could be just a hidden agenda to hoodwink the villagers as always and the government will continue with its conversion land spree.”
He said that the government is talking of giving powers to panchayats but on the other hand it is bringing amendments to take away powers of the local self bodies. This is just hogwash.
Orlando Dias, a villager of Aquem Baixo said, “I don’t think the government is serious in reviving agriculture in the State as we have seen how openly fields are converted. The agriculture bill is a ploy to keep fields barren and then convert them.”
Citing his own example, Dias said, “My tenanted agricultural land and house were acquired for the Konkan Railway project when there is a ruling that tenanted agricultural land cannot be used for any other purpose. When we asked for enhancement of compensation no alternate land was given to us and the compensation was meagre to construct a new house. Our family members were not even provided employment being the victims as our land was acquired.”
Curtorim former ZP J Santano Rodrigues said, “Our Curtorim Village Panchayat has not received the letter sent by Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik to discuss the agriculture policy during the special gram sabha on October 2. When I enquired with the panchayat secretary, the latter told me that the Panchayat had not received any letter from the Agriculture Minister.”
He said that during the last gram sabha the villagers discussed the policy and submitted their suggestions to the government
