the goan I network
Porvorim
The residents of Nerul in the gram sabha held on Sunday opposed vociferously the decision of the state government to shift the offshore casinos to Aguada Bay.
The villagers mentioned that in Nerul there are about 500 boat operators serving the tourists and 300 fishermen who are earning their livelihood.
If the casinos, too are shifted to Aguada Bay it would have a disastrous effect on the lives of the locals.
“Under no circumstance will we allow the shifting of casinos from Panjim to Aguada Bay,” they said.
Meanwhile, the villagers complained that they are facing acute shortage of water these days even though there has been plenty of rainfall in Goa this year. They also state that they have been facing this water problem for several years now, but none of the MLAs could solve their problem.
Sarpanch Piedade Almeida mentioned that she visited the office of the Assistant Engineer, water supply division several times but in vain.
According to the Sarpanch, the day she meets the AE, water is released but next day again there is no water supply.
The villagers therefore decided to come down on the streets to get their problem solved.
As per the directions of the Block Development office, the Coastal Zone Management Plan was also presented in the gram sabha with villagers observing several discrepancies in the plan.
Hence it was decided unanimously to invite suggestions from all the stakeholders and correct the discrepancies before submitting a revised plan to the BDO.
Issues regarding frequent disruption of power supply, illegal hill cutting, preservation of water bodies, tenants verification were also discussed.
