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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PORVORIM FOCUS: Serula's riches-to-rags script in final stages - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - By Paul Fernandes [EMAIL PROTECTED] PORVORIM: `Sold Out. No more land available.' This is a board, which the Serula Comunidade may as well put up outside its office. The riches-to-rags story of this grand institution is almost complete. "There is hardly anything left," admits its newly re-elected president, Mario Aleixo Vaz, "as almost everything has been grabbed". Serula of yore was the biggest village of Bardez and had 20 wards (with 9,783 habitations in 1894, as per records), three churches, four lakes and two springs. Now, politically, the area is covered in the village panchayats of Socorro, Penha de Franca, Salvador do Mundo and part of Pomburpa. But it is sadly requiem-time for one of the successful agricultural institutions in the whole of Goa. "This act of land-grabbing has destroyed the institution with its honourable aims and objectives," says former sarpanch of Penha de Franca, Umesh Phadte. "It is slowly fading away." Phadte admits that comunidade land is scarce in his village and now attempts are being made to grab areas in open spaces. During his recent tenure as sarpanch, he filed a complaint regarding the attempt to convert a large chunk of open space of around 5,000 sq m before the Planning and Development Authority (PDA) and an inquiry is in progress. Porvorim's amazing metamorphosis is largely rooted in the 'land-grabbing'. "From beggars to bureaucrats and from the low income to the high income group participated in the plunder of land resources," says a senior resident of Socorro. It all started in the late seventies with squatters, including drivers, labourers, government servants and others laying siege to the comunidade land. Housing for the poor and the landless is indeed one of the tenets of the comunidade system, provided the land is barren and uncultivable. And some deserving persons may have been beneficiaries; but a large number of them misused their possession of the land, allege some gaonkars. "Overnight, they built their houses and later filed applications claiming to be mundkars," says Soter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, a gaonkar. They allegedly managed to get plots allotted to themselves, in connivance with the managing committees, revenue authorities and political godfathers. But most have built houses and sold it to others, specially commercial interests and the developers, laments a gaonkar. As per the Code of Comunidades, only single dwelling units should have been built, but many beneficiaries took the opportunity to construct even multi-storied buildings and have rented it out or are using the space for other commercial activities. Many kiosks have also sprung up. The code of the hoary institution lays down that the land cannot be alienated or put to commercial use, says Andre Pereira, secretary of Association of Components of Comunidades. "The objective is for use and re-use by the community for either usufructary rights or for dwelling," he says. A small strip of agricultural land was enough to feed the whole family, says a gaonkari expert. But even cultivable land in Serula has been quietly sold to vested interests. Even the new president admits it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PROVORIM FOCUS-II : STANDING THE TEST OF TIME, ONE LITTLE PATCH - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - "We are a part of history. We have some of the highest-ranking military officers living here. They are some of the best managers this country has and they reached the top because they were the best." -- Commander John Eric Gomes. By Reuven Proenca PORVORIM: While the rest of Porvorim has grown up into a virtual concrete jungle, one little patch has remained the same and withstood the test of mindless development. Defense Colony, Porvorim, is the ideal township that serves as a perfect example for the rest of this state. The neat, well-maintained, houses with the equally well-maintained gardens line either side of the numerous lanes that criss-cross each other. An aura of discipline hangs around wherever you go. You are, after all, on sacred ground with enough war heroes to fill several volumes. As you walk around -- barring the distant blare of truck horns -- you would never think that you were just off National Highway 17. The lanes are rarely busy and if you happen to drop by at siesta time, get prepared to feel lonely. Before people ever heard of Sanjit Rodrigues and his 'Bin-Free' campaign, the residents of this enclave had already started their own door-to-door garbage collection programme. They were forced to take matters into their own hands when nearby panchayats threw up their hands and said that they couldn't help tackle the garbage. Rather than take the matter lying down and fixing the blame on the panchayats, the residents decided to come up with a solution. Even now you will see uniformed staff pushing a garbage collection wagon and disposing off waste in two designated disposal areas equipped with incinerators. While co-operative movements were just starting out and nearby shop-owners were demanding their pound of flesh, the residents, once again, took matters into their own hands and started Sainik Co-Operative Stores (see box). The military 'canteens' visit Defense Colony thrice a month -- the Army canteen twice and the Navy, once. According to SS Baxi, secretary of the Sainik Co-operative House Building Society, more than 1.5 lakh sq mtrs of land was procured from Serula Communidade to set up the colony in 1966. The land was divided into plots of equal area and sold at subsidized rates. The Society constructed a Gymkhana -- equipped with a variety of indoor games -- about four years ago. In those years Porvorim was still a jungle and the late Captain Anju D'Souza, one of the first residents, was fond of telling the colony's children -- while plying them with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of boiled confectionary -- about the 'white cow' and other assorted 'ghosts' that used to prowl around the place. "There was only jungle and we didn't even have electricity back then and had to use paraffin lamps," recalls Commander John Eric Gomes. "We also had a lot of snakes slithering around the place." "It was a challenge getting people to invest in a plot here. There was absolutely nothing so you couldn't blame them for not wanting to build their retirement homes in the middle of nowhere," a longtime resident, who asked not to be named, said. But as the first few residents trickled in, more started to follow. 38-years later Defense Colony has 144 homes and many more residents, though many of them are senior citizens. As Gomes puts it, "We are a part of history. We have some of the highest-ranking military officers living here. They are some of the best managers this country has and they reached the top because they were the best." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TIRED OF BEING CHEATED BY THE SHOP-KEEPERS - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PORVORIM: They say that necessity is the mother of invention. It was necessity that drove the residents of Defense Colony to start their own co-operative store. "We were tired of being cheated by the shopkeepers here so we decided to form the co-operative society. It was a very humble beginning, 12 years ago, and we started by renting out a house in the colony," recalls Commander John Eric Gomes, secretary of the co-operative society and a consumer rights activist who recalls loading a rickshaw at Ponda and pushing it up steep slopes. Initially the existing shops in the area tried to stop their new competitor by drastically reducing their prices. "But that was exactly what we wanted," Gomes says. When reducing prices did not work, they resorted to muscle power. But that did not work either, when all the military men stood tall and faced off the goondas. Today, Sainik Stores has moved into its own building and is counted as one of the best success stories the co-operative movement can boast of. Gomes attributes it to divine blessings, "God has been kind to us. We survived without any help and look at where we have reached." 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