One of the budget highlights of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant was a proposal to develop Chandor as a heritage village to showcase Goa's rich history. Opposition leader Yuri Alemao quickly thanked the CM for the announcement and claimed that his persistent requests for developing Chandor as a heritage village were finally heard.
However, seven months after the announcement, not a stone moved as the quaint village in Salcete continued to go through the rigours of day-to-day life, with the conservation of its heritage remaining a forgotten dream. On Saturday, however, the Chandor Village Development Committee met. Its members dwelled at length over the rich history of the village, walked down memory lane and stressed the need to preserve the imprints of the past, including those left behind by the Kadamba rulers during their reign in the 6th and 7th centuries and later the colonial touches.
Chandor, earlier known as Chandrapur, is soaked in heritage, culture and history spanning centuries that there are no second thoughts over its choice as a Heritage Village. It boasts of an archaeological site, an 11th-century temple, a mud fort, a historic statute of Nandi Shiva bull, pre-Portuguese architecture, heritage residences, underground chambers, the flow of the Kushawati river on one side of its landscape, and it carries a distinct aura making it a treasure trove of heritage.
The irony is while the government endorses the heritage of Chandor, it is not doing enough to take the conservation project forward, and the village continues to grapple with fundamental issues ” from garbage disposal, poor maintenance of roads and the threat posed by the South Western Railway's expansion project, dusty roads, the coal spills of rail transportation, rampant dumping of debris, soil erosion and the constant flooding every monsoon.
Very little has changed for the good of Chandor, and villagers continue to fight a losing battle to save this piece of heritage. In fact, those protesting against double-tracking that threatened to destroy the heritage vibe of the village were seen as criminals and harassed. There is very little support for those taking up cudgels against concretisation.
If the government truly wants Chandor to be a heritage village, then a lot has to change, beginning with an intent to drive that change. A mere endorsement of a heritage village is not enough. It is meaningless to continue discussing heritage preservation when authorities and people remain helpless spectators to the crumbling heritage structures elsewhere.
Speakers at Saturday's meeting spoke on the glorious heritage of Chandor, but very little will be achieved if the government does not take concrete steps to put plans in motion. The approach towards protecting heritage elsewhere in the State paints a grim picture because many age-old structures are in a dilapidated state and continue to be neglected. Restoration and conservation of heritage is not an easy subject. It requires both capital and skilled resources with meticulous study and planning that work together to maintain the visual harmony of the landscape.
The Minister for Archives and Archaeology, Subash Pal Desai, who has lately been showing so much urgency in setting up an IIT in his constituency, must also show a similar appetite towards heritage conservation in Chandor and throughout the State.
