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HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CORTALIM, MARCH 31 –
Violent clashes at the Carmona Gram Sabha on Sunday may not be restricted to
Salcete alone, as Goans in other parts of the State are slowly rising up to
oppose housing projects that attract the migrant population.
For instance in Mormugao taluka alone – which has three talukas – the migrant
community has a sizeable chunk of votes and could well outnumber the locals,
especially in Vasco and Mormugao.
Likewise, even the newly drawn constituency of Dabolim, which consists of
Bogmalo, Chicalim and three wards of MMC (Vaddem and New Vaddem), could well
end up in a migrant getting elected to the Goa Assembly, if the migrants vote
en bloc to the candidate.
While the opposition to the Carmona hosing project is not an exception, similar
projects have been vociferously opposed in Colva, Sancoale and Siridao.
Locals in Sancoale, who have been outnumbered by migrants argue, that bungalows
and mega housing projects, which exceed the purchasing powers of Goans, would
only attract outsiders, thereby altering the demography of the village.
Besides not benefiting from these projects, villagers could also bear the brunt
of these projects in terms of negative effects on ecology.
In Sancoale, the proposed housing project by a New Delhi-based developer has
received all the technical approval, despite coming up
on a plateau, which is rich in animal habitat.
“The developer managed to get conversion from agriculture zone to settlement
zone merely because there were no objections received
to the public notice issued by the PDA authority,” an MPDA official told Herald.
Even worse is the fact that the present populace has to grapple with erratic
power and water supply on a daily basis, besides increased
garbage in the area. “If these projects are allowed to come up, how will these
amenities be provided to them. Will it be at our cost,”
asked Sancoale Panch Tulsidas Naik, who firmly opposed the project at the
Sancaole gram sabha.
Similar is also the case with plots developed by real estate developers and the
government’s 20-point programmes.
The villages of Chicalim and Dabolim, for instance, witnessed large-scale
development of property, after outsiders purchased most of the plots.
Blaming Goans for the mess, a prominent Vasco-based builder claimed that Goans
sell their land directly to outsiders.
“When Goans themselves are attracting outsiders and making them gaonkars, by
selling their land, then why should we blame the outsiders
who pay a heavy price for it,” he argued.
In fact, Communidades have large land holdings and some outsiders have also
managed to penetrate the age-old system, by purchasing communidade shares,
ostensibly with an eye on the communidade land.
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