the goan I network
MAPUSA
People’s power emerged victorious when all the villagers walked out of the Candolim gram sabha on Sunday after Sarpanch Blaize Fernandes refused to pass a resolution against the Candolim ODP which the locals claimed was full of holes.
Pointing to various flaws in the ODP for Candolim, the villagers demanded scrapping of the ODP and the PDA.
Raising their voices against the plan, locals said that the village was being destroyed by the ill-planned ODP.
“There is rampant land filling of our fields and water bodies to facilitate construction activity while hills have been shown as settlement zones in order to benefit the builder lobby,” said Damian Telles.
Questioning the sanctity of the land use map drawings, villagers said that the maps were dubious and benefitted only the builders.
They said the ODP will only facilitate conversion of fields and orchard land into settlement zones while builders would get more FAR.
“The panchayat will be a tool in the hands of the planning authorities even as NGPDA will dictate terms on the development of our village,” said Roshan Mathias.
Later a resolution to scrap the ODP was proposed by Damian Telles and seconded by Roshan Mathias.
Refusing to accept the gram sabha’s demand, Sarpanch Blaize Fernandes told the villagers to put in writing the changes they wanted on the ODP and also volunteered to accompany them to the NGPDA office.
He also suggested calling a special gram sabha to discuss the issue threadbare. He further said that in 2015, the then gram sabha had passed a resolution favouring the ODP.
Sachin Kutikar told the gram sabha that in 2015 special gram sabha the villagers supported the ODP as the local MLA had assured that all illegal houses in Candolim would be regularized.
“Now there is a U-turn on that promise and people are feeling cheated as only builders stand to benefit from this plan,” Kuttikar said.
With the sarpanch refusing to budge from his stand, a senior member of gram sabha appealed to the people to walkout from the meeting.
Over 150 people got up from the chairs and waked out of the gram sabha, perhaps creating history in Goa’s gram sabhas.
