---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Siddarth Karapurkar <[email protected]>
*Goenchea Xetkarancho Ekvott* Letter no. 16/2009 Date: 6/8/09 To The Chief Minister Government of Goa, Panaji, Goa Dear Sir/Madam The traditional ecological communities of Goa, which account for the majority of its population, are today facing a grave threat due to wrong policies, lack of planning and poor governance. Besieged by sprawling constructions and indiscriminate mining, displaced by arbitrary acquisitions of prime agricultural lands for ill-conceived infrastructure, industrial and other projects and harassed by unmanageable pollution and government indifference, the farmers of Goa have been forced to take this last stand for survival, or to fight to the very end. On 2nd of August 2009, more than 1500 representatives of farming communities from various parts of Goa got together ar Lohia Maidan, Margao, and pledged to unite and fight against the colonial and dictatorial rule unleashed on the farmers over the recent years. The attached memorandum was unanimously adopted by the large gathering, stating two demands, which are that acquisition of agricultural lands be stopped immediately and that all agricultural and common lands which have been acquired, but are not yet destroyed irreversibly, be returned to the people. As you are well aware, the State of Goa is unique in many ways, and though small in size, it has a lot to offer to the nation. From a geographical and environmental perspective, the special appeal of Goa is due to its tiny size and its location in the center of the Western Ghats, a World Natural Heritage site and one of the Hotspots of Biodiversity of the entire World. These characteristics of the State are reflected in the myriad of tightly packed tiny and highly sensitive ecosystems which have been judiciously and sustainably employed for agriculture for thousands of years. No wonder this land and its people occupy a unique place in the hearts of all Indians and many others. Another important distinction from the rest of the country is the regime of land ownership prevalent in the State of Goa. In the pre-colonial era, the Indian 'gaunkari' system vested all common lands in the village, which administered these lands independently. While the British destroyed these resilient democracies all over British India by refusing to acknowledge the 'gaunkaris', by vesting all common lands to the British Crown, and by employing the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, Goa was the only part of India which escaped this socio-economic destruction. In Goa, even today, lands are vested in the village community in the name of 'communidades'. The Father of our Nation and our beloved Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi were both inspired by the Goan communidades, which exemplified the glorious Indian past, now extinct in the rest of the country. Shri Rajiv Gandhi's dream and his greatest gift to this nation are embodied in our Constitution in the form of its 73rd and 74th Amendments. The revival of rural India and the fulfillment of the dreams of our great leaders will be rendered impossible if the common lands of Goan villages are not saved, since this is the only living model of the ideal rural democracies which used to be the essence of golden India. Today tiny Goa is faced with the greatest threat in its history, in the form of the blind adoption of Western policies by the State Government, which is hell-bent on transforming the State into a replica of Singapore. Infrastructure projects, industrial estates and other large construction projects are arbitrarily forced on the unwilling citizenry, whose small land holdings are being indiscriminately acquired and converted from prime agricultural lands into concrete jungles. The backward communities of Goa, who are the biggest sufferers in this assault, are being displaced in thousands turning these ancient, self-sufficient ecological communities into ecological refugees. This is a desperate appeal from all the citizens of Goa to the Government of Goa to save this veritable paradise on earth from irreversible destruction. If our demands are not met, it is certain that the future generations will have nothing but contempt and curses for all of us, for our short-sighted greed and for their sufferings, which nobody but we shall be responsible for. And finally, while hearing this appeal, one must also give heed to the rising sea waters and the shrinking Himalayan glaciers, signs of great food crises in the near future. Having placed our confidence in your foresight and wisdom, we await your immediate response to this desperate and final plea to save our lands and the lives of the future generations. Let us not blindly copy the failings of the West, but set an example that shall be the guiding light for the rest of the world, plagued as it is by the short-sighted greed of a few and grave environmental and socio-economic problems of the masses. Thanking you, Paulo Fernandes Secretary On behalf of GXE -- Please post your comments on my Blog: http://goanidentity.blogspot.com/ Please also see below: 1. Benaulim Village Action Committee: http://www.bvacbenaulim.blogspot.com/ 2. "Rape of Goa" : http://www.parrikar.com/blog/the-rape-of-goa/ 3. MAND - an adivasi-rights resource centre : http://mandgoa.blogspot.com/ 4. EVERY GOAN SHOULD SEE THIS VIDEO: http://infochangeindia.org/Infochange-documentary.html 5. For the Love of Konkani: http://www.radiogoa.net/ 6. Goa's Identity Movement website: http://www.goamag.net/gim 7. Official Government Site NRI Office (GOA): http://www.globalgoans.org.in/
