NESHWIN ALMEIDA
neshwin@herald-goa.com
BENAULIM: Xaxti’s most famous Benaulim beach and the serene quiet village which attracts tourists from all over the world is facing a huge threat.
The threat of illegal construction and increasing garbage menace besides migrants in the village seem to be a big headache for Benaulim villagers.
Benaulim bursting at its seams with hotels, restaurants, home stays, illegal rooms for migrant workers and massive housing complex on time sharing basis, the village is in desperate need to sort out its garbage menace.
Sarpanch Remedios Fernandes explains how land was identified for dumping of wet waste and just before acquisition, the Goa State Pollution Control Board turned down the panchayat request after social activists pointed out that the land is low lying and part of an agricultural field.
“We’ve failed to tackle the wet garbage waste and since people have no land to dump it or we have no system to treat it hence the problem. We are desperate to identify land to work with our wet waste. In terms of re-cyclables, we have a garbage collection drive which is mostly successful,” explains Fernandes and is agreed upon by Xavier Pereira, the Deputy Sarpanch.
Local villager Rudolf Barreto has certain observations to make. “Why is it that the press, especially the print media, addresses the concerns of Benaulim in terms of garbage, infrastructure, better power supply and cleaner beaches? Shouldn’t this be the campaign of the people of Benaulim to improve their village? I feel the village of Benaulim and its people need to empower itself and protect itself rather than always looking for the panchayat to make decisions,” explains Barreto.
Former sarpanch Royla Fernandes believes that a village as a community has a lot of power to do things and reminds us how the villagers came out last week to paint road markers and speed breakers and she hopes people will mobilize to protect the village and demand facilities.
Panch Xavier Pereira gives his take on how the panchayat can earn revenue to make projects self sustaining. “For 20 years there was no study or survey in place in terms of the number of houses, rooms, villas, home stays, hotels and we carried that out extensively. Now the onus is to follow that database and recover house taxes completely and make the panchayat sustainable once again,” he said.
Braulio Britto, another local, patrols the panchayat area through the evenings to prevent migrant workers and outsiders doing business in Benaulim from dumping their garbage in other people’s fields, nullahs and private property. Braulio also keeps a watch for miscreants in the panchayat with increasing crimes and theft in the village and hopes the panchayat can fix CCTV cameras to curb crimes.
Another concern within the village is the growing taxi mafia by local drivers supported by local politicians in the village.
A supermarket owner said that taxi drivers now demand hafta and bribes from supermarkets and retail shops within Benaulim in exchange of customers brought by them to the retail outlet otherwise the taxi drivers threaten to ensure that tourists boycott the said shop or supermarket on recommendation of the taxi driver.
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2 months before polls, bypolls in Benaulim?
A few months ago the Directorate of Panchayats confirmed the disqualification of the previous sarpanch Carmelina Fernandes after her alleged involvement which was apparently “proven” in swindling of funds and fraud in purchase of a photo copying machine for the panchayat. But even more baffling for the villagers is the fact that despite panchayat elections being scheduled for May 21 which is a few weeks away, the Directorate of Panchayat has still gone ahead and declared a bypoll in a ward in Benaulim to replace Carmelina. The villagers are angry with such a decision.
