MARGAO: Parishioners and youth of Our Lady of Monserrate Chapel Manora, Raia, along with newly appointed Chaplain Fr. Cristo Pinto on Tuesday cultivated the paddy field kept abandoned for almost 40 years. Speaking with Herald Fr. Cristo Pinto said that witnessing the attack on the environment he thought of taking some sort of initiatives on the land belonging to the Chapel Committee.
“When I took over the charge as a Chaplain of Our Lady of Monseratte Chapel, few of the parishioners informed about the barren agricultural land and unutilized property of Chapel, so I thought to paddy cultivation”, he said.
He said that this agricultural land was barren for almost 40 years and there was a belief amongst the Parishioners that this land has a curse on it.
“Hence, there was fear amongst the people to step in on this land. The main aim is that to protect nature and preserve it for the future generations”, said Fr. Cristo.
He further revealed that all the associations attached to Chapel, besides the committee helped a lot in order to go forward with the decision of cultivating the land.
Cosia Oliveira, a youth of Manora said that they have been motivated by the Priest in this activity of agriculture.”Yes, we are witnessing that youth are hesitating to engage themselves in such types of agricultural activities in recent times. But we forget that the environment needs to be protected and as a youth, we have to take up the responsibility”, she said appealing to other youth to come forward and cultivate the agricultural land.
Another youth Arantxa Quadros said that it was a good experience for her, as for the first time she steps in doing such type of agricultural activities.
“I really enjoyed this”, she said.
Maria Barbosa said they are very happy to see that this land has been cultivated after a gap of almost 40 years. “The efforts are taken by the Priest and others need to be appreciated. Keeping barren the agricultural land is not proper, as it is our duty to make the best use of the land offered to us by nature and God”, she stated.
Fr. Cristo and the committee of the chapel has also decided to do more plantations on the land belong to Chapel, which is in thousands of square meter in near future.
