PORVORIM
A special gram sabha was convened by Penha de Franca panchayat on Sunday to discuss the CZMP draft plan forwarded by the Directorate of Panchayat. Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte was present at the gram sabha.
Environment officers Sujit Dongre and Anpat Siddhye explained the salient features of the draft plan. The villagers pointed out that none of the suggestions made by them in the previous gram sabhas in 2019 had been incorporated in the new CZMP plan. Hence, MLA Rohan Khaunte suggested that the panchayat should sit with the villagers, discuss the shortfalls threadbare and with the help of an advocate make fresh suggestions including those made earlier and then forward the plan to the Directorate of Panchayat.
Later, while speaking to media persons, Khaunte mentioned that there were many shortfalls in the new CZMP draft plan. Areas like bundhs and sluice gates were not shown properly. The fishing community lives along the coastal line of Penha de France; their interest should be safeguarded, he said. The Porvorim MLA suggested that the panchayat must sit with a group of selected villagers and indentify the shortfalls and make suggestions afresh taking the help of the advocate and then send the plan to the government.
The time line of 26 February 2021 set by the government for submission of suggestions by the panchayat is too short and hence it needs to be extended till the forthcoming Assembly session so that the issues concerning the villagers can be discussed in the Assembly, the MLA said.
In some constituencies the CRZ-3 has been changed to CRZ-2 which is drafted by PDAs, creating confusion in the minds of the people. Holding the concerned authorities responsible for the mess, Khaunte said this was a serious issue and the government should have discussed the matter with their consultants and then finalised the CZMP plan after taking into consideration suggestions made by the villagers.
Sarpanch Swapnil Chodankar stated that the new CZMP was received by the panchayat 10 days ago and that after going through the plan, they noticed objections raised and suggestions made by the villagers in the two gram sabha meetings held in 2019 not taken into account by the government. Therefore, the panchayat decided to convene a special gram sabha to discuss the matter with the villagers, he said.
He further added that, there is a fishing community in the Penha de Franca coastal belt and they experience a lot of difficulty in regard to construction and repair of their houses. They are made to run from pillar to post for minor repairs. Their issues should be sorted out before finalising the plan.
