Carmona is a bink and you miss village between the tourist hubs of Varca and Cavelossim. It doesn’t reap tourism profits and is in the middle of struggles, for land cultivation subsidies and against a mega project
The village of Carmona could be straightout of a book – a lazy meandering river, paddy fields, and quaint littlehouses.
In 2008, thequiet of the village was disturbed-according to the villagers- by the Mumbai-basedbuilder K Raheja, whose proposed mega-project of 618 apartments on the banks ofriver Sal threatened to destroy the ecosystem and usurp the already meagreresources of water and electricity. Though the villagers thwarted theconstruction, the plots still remain in the possession of the builder.
The biggerproblem now however, is the decline in cultivation. Out of the 751.871 hectaresthat is Carmona, 42.4% is agriculture land. But many of the fields lay barren, andare no longer fit for cultivation. Blair Rodrigues, chief coordinator of theCarmona Farmer’s Club, said, “Farmers do not find it viable to cultivate theirfields, as the area owned by land-holders is not substantial and they thereforecannot avail of government subsidies. The manual labour costs are very high,and mechanised farming cannot be introduced due to the small land holdings. Theother problem that rendered the fields uncultivable was the saline waterentering low-lying fields due to the erosion of the river banks, and theneglect of the problem by the Water Resources Department.”
The other issueof the village is the Zalor Beach which is under dispute. “The survey showsZalor beach of Carmona under the jurisdiction of the Varca Panchayat,” saidSanjeev Naik, secretary of the Village Panchayat of Carmona. “As a result, thereis not a single hotel around the beach, and while the neighbouring villages ofVarca and Cavelossim reap handsome revenues from tourism, we remain poor,” saidInacio Rodrigues, a local. “Another problem is that of water shortage. Thegovernment pipeline lacks pressure, caused by neighbouring hotels over-utilisingthe already pitiable amount,” he adds. Carmona also suffers from frequent powercuts.
After setting anexample for the rest of Goa with their opposition of the mega-project and thentaking the lead to get all the other issues in order, there is hope that theefforts of the villagers and the heroes of Carmona shall come to fruition.
