MAPUSA: Calangute Constituency Forum (CCF) President Premanand Diukar on Saturday raised apprehensions that Panchayat Raj Act will cease to exist on account of notification on urbanisation.
“People will lose their right to speak and plan the development of their villages. People will not be able to raise their voice as no gram sabha will be held. Also Mundkars will lose their rights over 300 sq metres of land and will have to settle for just 200 sq metres. There won’t be any restrictions on vertical development and the villages will go down to CRZ II category from present CRZ III where coastal development will flourish with maximum benefits to the developers,” Diukar warned.
“No Development Zone (NDZ) will be reduced from 200 mtrs to 50 mtrs, wherein shack policies will be abolished and most locals will lose their livelihood,” he claimed.
Diukar said, “Urbanisation will minimise the benefits to local businesses and changing Calangute from beautifully known as rural village worldwide to urban area will have adverse effects on the tourism sector. It will result in overexploitation of natural resources, air pollution, noise pollution, increased temperatures and development of slums.”
CCF has asked the panchayat to call for a special gram sabha and place the notification before the members for discussion and appealed for prioritising safety and protection of village identity.
It said the panchayat should aim at protecting the village environment to maintain its ecological balance and urged the local body to go for sustainable development.
It urged the panchayat to act swiftly to denotify the notification in the interest of the village by taking example of previous body, which foiled the government’s bid years ago to notify Calangute as urban area.
The CCF said, “ODP-2025 was the gift to this beautiful pristine village by these same elected representatives in 2019 and its effects are widely seen with the destruction taking place all over coast, fields and hills, etc. This notification will not benefit the locals but will lead to destruction.”
“Notification of Calangute as urban area without any notice published shows the administrative failure of the Calangute Panchayat. It is a prime responsibility of the panchayat to ensure the safety and identity of the village and the villagers. But bringing in ODP and now urbanization proves the vested interest of our elected leaders to protect builders or developers rather than the villagers and the village environment,” Diukar alleged.
