the goan I network
MARGAO
Government's plan to set up an school education hub by shifting Margao-based schools to Davorlim has run into rough weather after a special gram sabha of Davorlim panchayat on Sunday in one voice objected to the government plan to bring the city schools to the village on land admeasuring 1,15,200 in survey No 16/1.
Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro, who was questioned by the villagers to outline his stand on the demand opposing the shifting of city schools in the village, promised to stand by the villagers and support their demand in every forum, including the Legislative Assembly. Davorlim Panchayat members, including Sarpanch Flancy Gomes, also publicly announced their support to the demand to oppose the shifting of schools in the village.
The villagers made it clear that shifting of the Margao-schools in Davorlim will not benefit the village in any way, including employment. Instead, gram sabha sabha members maintained that the village will be suffocated by traffic congestion as the government plans to shift over half-a-dozen schools in the village.
The special gram sabha convened to discuss and deliberate on a single agenda of government's plan to shift Margao schools to Davorlim evoked huge response, with hundreds of villagers turning up for the meeting on Sunday morning. While demanding scrapping of the school education hub, the villagers asserted that they would decide on the nature of development projects benefiting the village that should come up on the acquired land.
Gram sabha member Andrew Rebello and others made a forceful plea to the Panchayat and the government to leave the acquired land for the benefit of the villagers. "Today, Davorlim waste is not
accepted at Sonsodo, but they want to shift Margao schools to Davorlim. Village is witnessing traffic snarls because of a school in Nessai. Imagine what would happen on Davorlim roads when more than a dozen schools are shifted in the village", Andrew asserted.
The gram sbaha villagers questioned Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro, who was invited for the special gram sabha, to outline his stand on the controversy. Faleiro pointed out that he was not in Goa when the land was acquired by the government, adding that he was also not a MLA when the acquired land was handed over to the Directorate of Education by the district Collector on December 28, 2016. "I am not a party to the decision to acquire the land or to hand over the land to the Directorate of education. Davorlim villagers had in the sacrificed their land for the housing board, 20-point program and other projects", he told the gram sabha members.
When further asked by the gram sabha members to come clear on the project, Faleiro said "I am with you to oppose the project. I will take it up in the Assembly and remain with the people. Let us save our land for posterity. This ancestral Communidade land was in the past reserved for grazing".
Gram sabha members also questioned the Sarpanch why the Panchayat took no initiative to call a
special meeting to discuss the issue when the media had reported on the handing over of the land to the Education. Sarpanch Flancy Gomes said the Panchayat has till date not received any correspondence from the government on the education hub.
Leoncio Raicar sought to explain the gram sabha members how the government had acquired the land by proposing to set up multi-utility purpose projects, adding "even in the high court, the government had never mentioned that the land is being acquired for the education hub".
