Seven member Seraulim panchayat is a tiny village of water bodies and low lying fields and is located in Salcete. Seraulim’s villagers had a major setback 20 years ago when the village went through a major bypass surgery and the village was divided into exactly half with the Konkan railway track running into the centre of the village. But the village once again has another bypass surgery underway with a massive 4-lane highway being built through the village, covering the fields and water bodies of Seraulim and nobody seems to give a damn of the villager’s cries. But the village has another massive problem.
“Seraulim is evenly placed less than 5 to 10 kms distance from Colva, Benaulim, Betalbatim, Utorda, Majorda and Velsao, making the village very near to the coast and making the village very susceptible for development and construction on its scarce land,” explains Seraulim Panch member Elvis Coutinho.
Elvis explains how the village neighbours six coastal villages but doesn’t have a coast to its credit which means the High Court ban on construction of more than four units in coastal areas doesn’t apply to Seraulim though its just 4 kms from the coast.
Seraulim is a home for duplex bungalows, holiday homes, studio apartments, housing projects with inbuilt pools, luxury homes and even has a massive migrant population as upscale owners of these luxury homes or permanent migrants settled in the village since there’s a massive demand for construction within the village, asserted Lucio Dias, also a Seraulim-Duncolim villager.
The panchayat’s sarpanch himself admits that there is growing demand for construction in Seraulim which is changing the dynamics of the village but nothing can be done since the High Court ban doesn’t apply to the village.
“We actually went to the extent to ask one of the developers of a massive housing complex to donate 250 sq.mts of land from their project for our panchayat ghar and this explains to us the scale of construction in the village. We can’t stop it so at least we have to benefit from it,” explains the sarpanch Leslie Dourado.
It’s a two way process and we’ve been doing a lot of work in Seraulim, including assuring them to keep the village garbage free. We’ve also joined in their process of development ad agreed to help the village with a panchayat ghar. I admit Seraulim is controversy free in the Regional Plan imbroglio and hence is in the key of developers in Margao. But sadly newer fly by night builders are imposing much more strain in the village which is a major concern for all in Seraulim,” explains Datta Naik of CD Developers who believes that the village along with other villages in Goa is in need of cheaper housing and better planning of the village which can be done when the regional plan is passed.
