Dear Saligaokars, I wish you put on record my appreciation towards the "unstinting" and "selfless" efforts put in by Ashley Delaney on making of the maps etc for the Saligao Village Plan , and perform the duties of a convener over the past 2 months. His resilience in taking undeserved flack, brick-bats (very few bouquets) and even physical threats , and yet go on playing an important role in the preparation of the Village Plan, deserves to be acknowledged and formally appreciated.
I don't think there is anyone else in Saligao who has the ability to get all these things done on a computer, run around everyday, call people , collect information, put it together and despite all this, be called a manipulator. It was quite shameful that Ashley was being accused at the Gramsabha, when in fact he deserved a vote of thanks. But he swallowed these insinuations, and is back on his feet. Austy too deserves compliments for being the moderator. Without his booming voice, personality and respectable standing with the people, the Gramsabha would have become a free-for-all event !! Austy - could you please take this role in all the gramsabhas , and navigate proceedings to cover more than just 'land conversions'. Maybe even convene a pre-gramsabha meeting with the panchayat and other members interested to bring everyone on the same page on the panchayat day. Do the gramsabhas always need to be violent / acrimonious and confrontational ? Dominic from Bairo Alto and Eric Cordeiro were the other notable speakers who help calm down tempers and bring discussions back on track. It is very unfortunate that 99% of discussions in the last gramsabha were hovering around real estate , construction and land conversions, while very important issues such as Garbage, Sewage, water, health, education and electricity remained unattended (besides the motion to earmark a land for garbage sorting). The virulent and even physically violent reactions got from Panch members and those involved in real estate was uncivilised and indicative that the only concern in the gramsabha was land conversion. This was recorded and published by most Goan newspapers. Illegal encroachment and make-shift unaccounted migrant camps are reaching malignant levels. Despite requests in the past gramsabhas, no statistics or figures are brought out ! Large projects with swimming pools are mushrooming all over without any mention or discussion in the gramsabha, even though these would have a permanent impact on Saligao. In the gramsabha some of the members suggested that additional land needs to be converted to settlement to help the poor people of Saligao build a home. By all means , we should help the local citizens , but is there any mechanism by which is "additional settlement" actually goes towards the welfare of the poor people and is prevented from going on to the open market ?? Most of the recent legal and illegal conversions are auctioned to the highest bidder these days. Forget the poor, not even the well to do Saligaokars would afford Rs. 10,000 / sq. mt bids for land. Can we propose a special cell be made to facilitate settlement of the locals / poor etc ? This cell would ensure that the land "actually" goes to the poor / needy. What is the sense in converting more land, and inviting resource intensive construction projects in Saligao , when there are not enough resources for the existing populace !!?? Are we trying to make a "difficult" problem, "impossible" to solve ? With a handful of part-time do gooders faced against a powerful real estate lobby that has town planners, law enforcers and panchayat on their side , the chances of saving Saligao are bleak. What might save us is - fearless participation by more and more people from the village- regularly - insistence on punitive action - identification and demolition of recent illegalities (which will slow down new ones from coming up) - close interaction and followup with the panchayat - towards real "progress" and "development" (as opposed to "building / construction") Pen used to be mightier than the sword. Unfortunately, these days written words are read in haste and forgotten in a few minutes having been overwhelmed by the myriad things happening all around us. May I make a personal plea to all contributors on the saligaonet to please think of going one step further in aiding this fight to save Saligao. Let us focus on a short common agenda and not allow differences to upset the team effort. Let us draw inspiration from the quote - "Many of the great achievements of the world were accomplished by tired and discouraged men who kept on working." Sanjeev Trivedi Nigvaddo, Saligao. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ This message comes via the Google Groups "Saligao-Net" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net?hl=en Please post regularly to keep the e-village active! -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
