VASCO: Chicalim villagers will be attending a hearing on the draft Outline Development Plan 2030 in Mormugao Planning and Development Authority’s (MPDA) member secretary Ashok Kumar on Thursday afternoon.
The MPDA has sought suggestions and objections from the stakeholders including the panchayats and the villagers since it had proposed to revise the ODP 2026 of the Vasco Planning Area with that of ODP 2030.
Hundreds of villagers from Chicalim have signed petitions to MPDA member secretary objecting the proposed Draft ODP for Vasco Planning Area.
The Chicalim villagers have accused the Member Secretary of failing to do his constitutional duty of protecting the ‘Right to Life’ of the local villagers through sustainable town planning and development of their planning area. The villagers, in writing, have pointed fingers at the member secretary, as the only technical expert in the planning body, of failing to put checks and counter measures in place to provide the Chicalim village healthy, peaceful, and dignified living conditions.
For the first time, the local villagers led by Fr Bolmax Pereira, the Chicalim Biodiversity Management Committee led by its Chairperson Rui Costa Araujo and the Chicalim Panchayat lead by Sebastiao B Pereira are on the same bandwidth accusing the PDA of faulty planning and non-application of mind and proposing a un-sustainable development model for Chicalim VP.
It may be recalled that the Chicalim panchayat had earlier organised a joint consultation with the villagers and the PDA officials. The member Secretary himself participated in this exercise to ascertain the views of the villagers.
During this interaction, Human Rights activist and local resident Cyril Fernandes gave a detailed Power-Point presentation highlighting the grave errors observed in the draft ODP and sought correction of the same before finalisation.
Subsequent to this interaction, the Panchayat submitted suggestions signed by over 200 villagers, who had attended the said consultation.
