VASCO: The personal hearing of the Chicalim villagers with the member Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA) secretary and members on Thursday remained inconclusive due to paucity of time.
The five-hour long marathon hearing could not be concluded due to non-availability of necessary documents and data which the villagers sought from the authority for their convenience and study.
Information provided by the Chicalim villager and Human Rights activist Cyril Fernandes revealed that the villagers had been invited by the sub-committee to consider the objections received on the draft ODP-2030 for Vasco Planning Area prepared by the MPDA notified in the Official Gazette on January 28, 2021.
Over a thousand villagers from Chicalim, Dabolim and St Jacinto Island have submitted objections to this draft ODP on grounds that the said plan is erroneous, does not reflect the ground reality and is detrimental to the welfare and development of the villagers.
Fernandes said the fear of the villagers is that the present Draft ODP 2030 does not bear any resemblance of planning and on the contrary exposes itself as a massive sham prepared without any logical development norms seemingly to satisfy the greed and appetite of a selected few.
“Hundreds of villagers from Chicalim have signed petitions to MPDA member secretary objecting to the proposed Draft ODP for Vasco Planning Area. Some villagers have gone to the extent of threatening legal action against the authority and also against the MPDA Member Secretary in his personal capacity,” Cyril said.
Before the villagers could be heard, the Chicalim Panchayat was invited to submit their suggestions. Chicalim Sarpanch Sebastiao Pereira and secretary Kapil D Naik appeared and presented their submissions. The sarpanch demanded that the 10 metre road shown at St Jacinto Island be scrapped and the Chicalim khazan shown as industrial zone be reverted back to khazan. The sarpanch demanded that all missing houses be shown in the OPD.
