The recent directives of the Sub Divisional Magistrate Salcete to stop the nearly three crore rupees construction of 3.8 kms internal roads along the khazan lands and mangroves behind the 400 year old Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Soccorro at Tambdeg Village Panchayat Carmona is unfortunate according to some of the village elders that this writer interacted with on Sunday, 14th January, 2007 and today most with valid reasons.
The above site of developmental works in Carmona comes in the Navelim Assembly Constituency of ex CM and Minister for Education Mr Luizinho Faleiro. But the recent political differences (read fireworks )between Mr Churchill Alemao MP Mormugao Parliamentary Constituency and Mr Luizinho Faleiro MLA Navelim Constituency has created strong ripples that has apparently divided the villagers in two camps. Moreso with the announcement by Mr Alemao of his intention to contest from the Navelim Constituency polarisation of voters pro-and anti Faleiro is taking shape. According to an ex Panch of this village, the story goes that in the 1860's the bunds along the river were invariably being washed away during the monsoons and most of the paddy fields lay inundated and could not be used for cultivations. It is learnt that the Veigas community from Carambolim who had innovative techniques in bund building came forward to do so and thus vast lands were saved from inundation and paddy cultivation resumed. As a "quid pro qua " the Veigas family was conferred the title of "gaunkar" and continued to reside in the village thereafter. Several years later due to lack of governmental support from the Irrigation Department these age old bunds began to collapse due to tidal vagaries and therefore again the paddy cultivation was restricted. Many abandoned the same. It is also pertinent to know that villagers also resorted to fishing using gelatine sticks and this too added to collapse of the bands. In the year 1999-2000 when the Mr Francisco Sardinha (MLA Curtorim) Government took office with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party following a split in the Indian National Congress the local MLA Mr Luisinho Faleiro was in the Opposition camp. At that time the VP Carmona passed a resolution to undertake construction of internal roads along the bands with the sole intention that this would help in maintainence of bands simultaneously by the Government and with the movement of people on the roads the instances of use of gelatine sticks for fishing would come to an end. This proposal it is believed received full support from the Sardinha Government and incidentally it is also learnt that Mr Aleixo Sequeira MLA Loutolim who was then a Minister for Industries and Information Technology in the Sardinha Government also welcomed this proposal. It is also understood that Mr Sequeira owns a shrimp farm (though this writer could not venture to the site as the same has been rendered inaccessible due to stoppage of work and boulders and drain water concrete pipes laid accross to prevent movement on foot or on wheels along the internal roads) Some villagers who spoke to this writer stated that the works should have been initiated much earlier, as by now most of the paddy fields are destroyed. Amother villager argued strongly that due to the change in Government with the BJP coalition of Mr Manohar Parrikar taking office on 24th October 2000 the delay was obvious as the Land Acquisition process started from publication sec 4 to proclamation sec 6 that it took over an year, and the award under sec 11 and payments etc took over two years. The land accquired belonged to the Communidade and some 20 private land owners. Many of the younger generation among the villagers also feel that work on this internal road has been going on in full swing and will end up at the shrimp farm of Mr Aleixo Sequeira MLA now in the Indian National Congress. This they feel is the reason why the road work is in full swing before the code of conduct for the ensuing elections come about, in February or May 07 (and in any case even much earlier once the UP Government of Mulayam Singh is ousted to pave way for the elections ) Some rumoured that the shrimp farm belonged to the lone UGDP MLA Cortalim Mr Mathany Saldanha but this is far from the truth as the village elders confirmed to this writer that his mother hails from the Carmona village but Mr Mathany has nothing to do with the shrimp farms. However what seemed to have irked members of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan whose convenor South had lodged the complaint is that the road construction has resulted in some mangroves being cut but their biggest apprehension is that slowly but surely the realtors would come forward to own and build resorts etc because of the enchanting and scenic beauty overlooking the Assolna ferry crossing. As it is some apartments are taking shape in this village in the form of Residency's and this could also change the demographic composition of the serene atmosphere in the otherwise seafarers village. There is also the Zog Mobor Island which has always been in controversy though there is no developmental activity seen by this writer who had visited the island as well save for shrimp farming carried on for well over 8 years now and a small farm house on the Island rebuilt from an existing structure ? on only a part of the island which belongs to family of Mr Luizinho Faleiro Minister for Education and three others. That these structures are in violation of CRZ regulations is for the authorities to examine whether they existed prior to February 1991 before the CRZ notification came about and if the Environment Protection Act 1986 is violated. Yet another section of the people that this writer contacted telephonically later this evening as a follow up to yesterdays site inspection state that they are suspicious of the motives of some of the leaders of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan now that the issue of the Regional Plan 2011 is in court; they say that some of the leaders have aroused a feeling that it was only some of the elected representatives of the minority community which is responsible for the glaring discrepancies in the Regional Plan 2011 and the change of land use mainly in the Velhas Conquistas and have threatened to ask for the list of all the land holdings that have been granted change of land use since 1988 when the "five years" period of section 17 of the TCP Act 1976 was deleted by an amendment by the Indian National Congress allowing for review of the Regional Plan 2001 at all times. Why not blame ALL elected representatives past and present instead of only members of the Catholic community they allege. It is a fact that most of the private land in the Velhas Conquestas (1510 to 1961 ) belonged to either private landowners mostly Catholics and the rest the Gaunkaries (communidades) If the private land owners (mostly Catholic community )have changed land use it is also the Government who has usurped the powers of the Gaunkaries and leased land to mainly non goans for a song. The destruction of Communidade land by resorting to regularising squatters and members of the majority community has been the excercise of successive elected representatives to rake in the "moolah". In June 2002 the Government mooted the idea of regularising encroachments on Gaunkary (communidade) land and this list is a guarded secret because members of the high class majority community have a share as well. They argued if there ought to be transparency then these lists should be posted on the Government website at the earliest. They also pointed out to a development working taking place between Margao to Nuvem which is believed to be done in Communidade land involving land filling of paddy field and a young politician who is yet to test the electoral battle and are surprised that the National channels like NDTV etc that are covering the destruction of lands in Goa has not attracted the attention of this gigantic structure which is nearing completion on NH 17 in full public glare and is a clear violation of change of land use. Once up and in use others will follow suit and large tracts of paddy land will be converted shortly. There are umpteen such instances which some of the majority community members of the Goa Bachao Abhiyan they say have ignored just to give the minority community a bad name as happened during the Konkan Railway and Meta Strips issue. Incidentally when such issues are raised the Church falls prey to the chicanery of the agitationists but fall short of realising the political undercurrents and harm it does to the Catholic community. Why name the movement "Abhiyan" does this not reflect the "architects of the movement and their clandestine demand" notwithstanding the fact that the Regional Plan portends several ills if passed in its present form. Nevertheless with the SDM expected to submit his report on the improvement of internal roads at Tambdeg Carmona in a day or two villagers expect the work to commence albeit with due safeguards to preserve the mangroves and bund. >From the Carmona end GODFREY J. I. GONSALVES, BORDA, MARGAO, 403 602, GOA. (INDIA) +91 98221 58584 (24 HRS) [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Answers: Share what you know. Learn something new http://in.answers.yahoo.com/