Khola villagers reject RP 2021 over irregularities

Khola villagers reject RP 2021 over irregularities
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CANACONA, JAN 23
Khola villagers at a specially convened Gram Sabha on Sunday unanimously decided to reject Regional Plan 2021, already notified by the government, as it contains severe irregularities and is not the villagers’ drafted plan.
The gram sabha members vociferously demanded to send a strong signal to the government totally rejecting the notified plan for the village.
Earlier in the gram sabha, explaining their position, the village committee-RP21 appointed under the chairmanship of Khola Sarpanch Archana Velip informed members that settlements requested by them are not considered, but existing orchard zones within CRZ purviews are notified as settlement zones.
Not even 5% consideration is given to village committee recommendations, members in the gram sabha were told.
“Government will be informed about the villagers’ decision to out rightly reject the RP-2021 for Khola village,” said Velip.
The gram sabha members were also surprised to know that existing springs, schools, church and even a cemetery are not shown in the notified plan.
According to sources, the bells were earlier reportedly first rang by the village committee-RP21 themselves, who worked to prepare RP-21 for the village, but were left to fume as it took strong cognizance that the government approved plan is totally different from the one submitted to TCP through Khola Panchayat.
The committee then decided to put the ball in gram sabha court and accordingly a special gram sabha was convened on Sunday.
Khola Bachao Abhiyan President Precopio Fernandes, who is also one of the member of Khola village committee for RP-21, said: “We had personally taken SLC-appointed taskforce member Edgar Rebello and others accompanying him for the round of village terrains and shown him certain locations which the villagers feared would be influenced for turning into settlement zones.”
“This is a backdoor entry government is providing to unidentified outsiders to take the mileage, as according to our knowledge, this vast tract of land, and presently a orchard in CRZ area is purchased by some outsiders,” alleged Fernandes.
Khola ZP member Krishna Velip also attended the meeting and voiced his concerns.
Including Sarpanch Velip, all the panchas and most of village committee RP-2021 members were present for the meeting, which was attended by a large number of villagers.
After the meeting, KBA President Fernandes said: “Notified RP or otherwise, at no cost Khola villagers will allow any major hotel project to come up in the village against the wishes of the people. If houses of traditionally villagers on shoreline can be termed by government as violating CRZ, then how can backdoor entry be given to outsiders by notifying CRZ areas and orchards as ‘settlement zones.”
Khola, after Agonda village is the second village in Canacona taluka to come out strongly rejecting the government notified RP-2021.