Dear Pachu Menon, Advocate Rajiv Gomes and others like minded people Goans,
You all are right what you have said it, may be in future this BJP Govt may think of converting whole Goa into a developed state and get rid of Gram Sabhas forever if they continue to be in power. Goa will be another paradise like Nariman Point of Mumbai and will have only tall buildings coming up looking up like Sky Crapers in America. No agricultural lands will ever be seen in Goa, No village life in Goa, Goa will turn into a sophisticated State of India where all the cinema actors, Rich businessmen, VVIP politicians and what not will reside in Goa and Goans will have to go away to overseas to earn their living. Casinos concept will come up. Gambling and prostitution will rise etc., Only time will tell us. It is high time that we Goans must start fighting for our rights, or else Goa will further go forever. Advocate Rajiv Gomes from Margao said it in NT dated 7.3.2015, and he is right; that Broadening Margao Municipality is in ambit to dilute power of Gram Sabhas villagers which are at the moment in the eyes of BJP Government . The villages are: Navelim, Curtorim, Nuvem, Raia, Colva, Benaulim, Seraulim and Sernabatim. Perhaps more will be in the list. Stephen Dias, D.Paula =============================== PACHU MENON, MARGAO Oppose Extension of Margao City Limits THE state government's proposal to expand the city limits of Margao by including wards of neighbouring villages could well have come of a consequence of the rapid urbanization that has been characterizing the so-called development in the country in recent times. However, for a nation that is flattered by the belief that it does not live in its towns but its villages, the haste shown by authorities for rearranging city limits is quite baffling! Moreover, the fact that the concerned MLAs and village panchayats are unaware of the move to bring the village areas and suburbs under the Margao outline development plan paints a very confusing picture of the whole proceedings. It is now being contented that with all the land in Margao used, there may be no further scope as only barren agricultural lands have to be converted. Hence the suggestion that adjoining village areas should be brought under the Margao ODP jurisdiction of the SGPDA through the town and country planning rules and Act! Margao today can at best boast of being a busy and teeming city in the south which in no way justifies its tag as the commercial capital of the state. High-rise structures coming up every other day and constructed in brazen violation of prevalent building rules magnifies the slackness of the concerned department in managing such illegalities. As it is the rampant construction activities have congested the city and with entrepreneurs not shying away from moving over to the suburbs, it is already difficult to say where the city ends and the villages begin. Let us not forget that though its defects are well known, we are still a rural civilization. The fondness for settling in far-flung villages, away from the hustle-and-bustle of swanky cities, still enamours us. Raising concrete jungles may be in keeping with all that is modern, but in our enthusiasm to sound progressive we are only replicating western cities which ultimately will not last as it is not best-suited to us. Moreover, with the atrocious ways our urban administrative divisions are known to function, one is seriously in doubt as to what 'delimitation' of bordering villages with an objective of bringing them under municipal jurisdiction would achieve! The legislators will definitely have their own reasons for vetoing the move; it is the people who should oppose it tooth and nail.
