Residents of Varca led by social activist Shohail Furtado addressing the media after calling on the Salcete Block Development Officer on Monday.
MARGAO
A group of residents of Varca led by social activist Shohail Furtado on Monday called on Salcete Block Development Officer to hold an extra ordinary gram sabha to discuss the village carrying capacity in view of multi-unit housing projects coming up in the village.
The delegation pointed out that it’s more than a month since the villagers had submitted a signed memorandum to the village Panchayat with a plea to stop granting permissions to all multi-unit housing projects till the Panchayat conducts a carrying capacity study of the village.
Furtado told the media after calling on the BDO that the villagers had submitted a memorandum to the Varca panchayat body a month ago to call for the extra ordinary gram sabha, but in vain.
“We have impressed upon the BDO on the issue and the BDO has assured to send a memorandum to the Panchayat on the plea raised by the residents”, he said.
The issue of conducting a study of the village carrying capacity had dominated the last gram sabha of the Varca village panchayat wherein it was resolved to hold a special gram sabha by inviting a resource person to guide the members on the question of conducting the village carrying capacity.
However, sources say the gram sabha resolution to hold the special gram sabha has not been implemented till date.
Last month, residents of Varca submitted a signed memorandum to the village panchayat to stop issuing permissions for multi-unit construction projects without conducting a study of the village carrying capacity.
The memorandum had spoken about the basic infrastructure coming under strain due to the increasing housing projects in the village. They pointed out that the village had been facing frequent power outages, erratic water supply, beside garbage management problems due to the increase in housing projects.
They had further pointed out that a study on the village carrying capacity will help ensure better planning, further demanding that the carrying capacity report should be placed in public domain.
