the goan I network
MAPUSA
It was democracy at its best when a large number of locals gathered in the Candolim panchayat to prepare the village development plan for Candolim, initiated by the Village Development Committee (VDC).
A large map of the village was placed on the ground in the panchayat’s courtyard as villagers began to mark various community structures on the map.
Various temples, chapels, crosses, jetties, water bodies, etc were marked in different wards on the map.
“We have printed the map of Candolim and all the people are identifying what is there in their village. This is what democracy is all about. Each one coming together and making a plan of the village and not somebody sitting in an AC office and making their plans for our village,” said Roshan Mathias, a villager and member of the VDC.
Panch members, including Sarpanch Blaize Fernandes, were busy helping the people identify spots and mark them on the map.
“This is nothing like the draconian ODP or the Regional Plan which have been made against the wishes of the people. Here what you see is the wishes of the people being fulfilled and that’s the beauty of the VDC,” Mathias said further.
The whole exercise saw spontaneous participation of locals.
“It was nice to see so many people coming together at short notice and participating. It was a good learning exercise too. Many of us got to know of things we were not aware of in the village. All in all, a great job,” said Regina Fernandes of Bamon-vaddo, Candolim.
According to Anifa Rodrigues, a youth from Dando, Candolim the whole task was an exhilarating experience.“So many of us came together and were working for the village as one unit. It was nice,” she said.
Candolim Sarpanch Blaize Fernandes informed that preparation of the village development plan received tremendous public response and gave credit to VDC convener, Camilo Dias and all the panch members.
“It was unexpected. People came out in large numbers. We are following the rules and today we carried out mapping of the resources in our village,” Fernandes said.
Mapping of resources is the first step towards preparation of the gram panchayat development plan. The next step is to visit various sectors like hospitals/health centres, anganwadis, schools, etc in the village and later engage with senior citizens, youth, fishermen etc and solicit their views on the requirement of the village.
The Village Development Committee comprises all panchayat members, all members of various standing committee constituted as per the Panchayat Raj Act, all members of any other committee constituted by the panchayat and eminent persons from the village whose number cannot exceed 25.
