VASCO
Residents of Chicalim have claimed that the personal hearing with the member secretary of the Mormugao Planning and Development Authority (MPDA) and his members remained inconclusive due to paucity of time and insufficient details.
Villager and human rights activist Cyril A Fernandes stated that a marathon hearing of five hours could not be concluded due to the non-availability of necessary documents and data, which they sought from the authority for their convenience and study.
The Chicalim villagers had been invited by the sub-committee to consider objections on the draft ODP-2030 for Vasco Planning Area prepared by the MPDA and which was notified in the Official Gazette on January 28.
Fernandes said over a thousand villagers from Chicalim, Dabolim and St Jacinto have submitted objections to this Draft ODP on grounds that the plan is erroneous, not reflecting the ground reality and detrimental to the welfare and development of the villagers.
“Before the villagers could be heard, the Chicalim Panchayat was invited to submit their suggestions. Chicalim Sarpanch Sebastiao Pereira and Secretary Kapil D Naik appeared and presented their submissions,” stated Fernandes.
The sarpanch has demanded that the 10-metre road shown at St Jacinto Island be scrapped and the Chicalim khazan, shown as an industrial zone, be reverted to Khazan. Pereira also demanded that all houses missed be shown in the OPD.
The next hearing for the Chicalim villagers was divided into three batches due to Covid protocols.
The first batch was led by Fr Bolmax Pereira and Edwin Mascarenhas, and comprised youth leader Valerie Afonso and Darell D’Souza.
Edwin Mascarenhas, an expert on ODPs and regional plans, questioned the rationale for revising the ODP 2026 before the completion of its valid period. He raised doubts on the validity of the Land Use Plan (LUP) and the Land Use Register (LUR) prepared for ODP 2026.
In the second round, Fernandes said he led the submission on behalf of the villagers and was accompanied by Capt Viriato Fernandes, St Jacinto resident Rulex D’Cruz, Adil Ghadiali and Roopa Naik.
Fernandes sought from the MPDA copy of data relied upon and analysed to arrive at in preparing the ODP 2026 and draft new ODP 2030, details of planning norms and methodology followed for ODP 2026 and draft ODP 2030.
The third batch was led by Rui Costa Araujo, Chairperson of the Chicalim BMC and ex-Sarpanch Pratap Mardolkar and also had Sanjay Mhalsekhar and Cosme Araujo as members.
The BMC chairperson highlighted the heritage aspect of the village and presented the validated copy of the People’s Biodiversity Register and requested the planning authority to incorporate all the heritage sites of the village into the draft ODP
