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5th Annual Konkan Fruit Fest
Promenade, D B Bandodkar Road, Panaji, Goa
16-18, May 2008
http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2008-May/073789.html
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Herald, 17 May 2008
Babu flayed for remarks on gram sabha resolutions
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, MAY 16 - Panchayat Minister, Babu Azgaonkar’s statements
questioning the validity of gram Sabha resolutions has come in for
severe flak from the Benaulim Villagers Action Committee.
“The Goan villages do not have adequate power, water supply,
primary health centres etc. These are not just amenities, but
enforceable legal entitlements. This is because the Supreme Court
has made it clear time and again that the rights to education,
water, shelter and even livelihood are fundamental rights
enforceable against the state by every citizen of the country.
Goa is still struggling to put in place, the garbage menace,
sewage disposal system and adequate motorable roads”, stated BVAC
spokesman Ben Evangelisto.
He said the Government should concentrate on the development of
infrastructure, saying that mega projects do not contribute to
development. “On the contrary, it will put a severe burden on the
scant resources, causing environmental, ecological, cultural,
social, economical issues and demographic imbalance.”, he added.
Referring to Panchayat Minister, Babu Azgaonkar’s statement “If
projects are closed down forcefully, there would be no development
in Goa’ , Evangelisto said the UN General Assembly recognized that
environmental problems were global in nature and determined that
it was in the common interest of all nations to establish policies
for sustainable development.
He said the Brundtland Report defines sustainable development as
development that meets the needs of the present generations
without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet
their own needs.
“Here in our own Benaulim, the villagers are fighting for
breathing space. The houses are crammed like sardines
particularly in wards of Soriant and Vaddie. The families expand.
Land does not”, Evangelisto added.
Saying that the gram Sabha is not against development, Evangelisto
said the people certainly are opposing negative development in the
guise of development, warning the administration not to go against
the spirit and letter of the historic 73rd amendment to the
Constitution of our country.
He said the BVAC is with the people of Benaulim in ensuring that
the rights of the Gram Sabha and the Panchayat are not denied by
illegal and immoral interpretation of the law.
GGRM: The Ganv Ghor Rakhon Manch (GGRM) has strongly condemned the
undemocratic statements by the Panchayat Minister and others
questioning the validity of Gram Sabha resolutions and warned the
administration not to go against the letter and spirit of the
historic 73rd Amendment to the Constitution.
GGRM spokesman Geraldine Fernandes has said that such misleading
propaganda will not stop the people of Goa from stopping the mega
projects which are a serious threat to the lives and livelihoods
of the Goans.
“Ignoring basic Governance issues is already causing great
hardship to the villagers. And instead of fulfilling their
responsibilities to the people who elect them, the elected
representatives are advocating the cause of the builders who are
out to ruin the villages of Goa “, she said.
The GGRM has called upon all the Sarpanchas and Panchas to join
the solidarity people in ensuring that the rights of the Gram
Sabha and the Panchayat are not denied by illegal and immoral
interpretation of the law. The people’s will shall overcome all
attacks on the villages of Goa, she added.
According to Ms Fernandes, GGRM is receiving lot of support from
across Goa after the mammoth show of strength by the Goan people
at the public meeting held at Benaulim on 12 May 2008, Meetings
are being conducted to finalize future strategy to save the future
of our Goan villages, she added.
--
Question everything -- Karl Marx
