They were one of the first groups to stand up against the regional plan 2011, after the movement by the GBA in 2006. They were the first to protest against illegalities in RP 2021. But the Pilerne Citizen’s Forum is more than that. They are the protectors of Pilerne, the people who empower the villagers and work to save their village from vested interests
When Angela D’costa, from Pilerne-Marra, was on the verge oflosing her farmland, due to clever alterations in documents, where over athousand square metres of land from Pilerne was shown as Candolim land, sheknew who she had to turn to. D’costa, who still tills the land with her family,didn’t waste time in rushing to a group of local activists, who wereresponsible for solving many problems in this beautiful village, set amongst alittle valley, surrounded by the Porvorim hills. Cases were filed, fought andthe land finally restored back to D’costa. “If it wasn’t for the PilerneCitizen’s Forum I would’ve lost my livelihood,” says D’costa.
The Pilerne Citizen’sForum is not new to this. They just celebrated five years of standing up forillegalities in and around their village, as well as being one of the groups tospearhead an all Goa movement against ‘manipulations’ in the Regional Plan2012. Ironically, it was the Regional Plan 2011, that was the catalyst in theformation of the group.
Advocate Yatish Naik, one of the main members of the PCF,states that the group came about “to create awareness about the illegalitiesand follies that were taking place in Pilerne.” The first high profile casethat they fought was put a stop order on construction at the nearby industrialestate where 35,000 sq metres, land that was notified under the RP2011, but wasnot stopped even after the Goa government scrapped the plan. Since then they’vesaved lakhs of square metres of land in their village, communidade and privateland, from being taken over and illegally constructed on.
The forum, whichstarted with a handful of people, now numbers 200 and is made up of farmers,doctors, lawyers, teachers, housewives and yes- even government employees. Ithas the support of almost 90 percent of the village. For them, a campaign isnot just a blind fight, but one that gets stronger with proper research, filingof RTI applications and other procedures. “Talking generally is not what we do.We undertake a project and first study the facts and figures before coming outand talking about it,” says a member of the PCF.
They led a campaignagainst bogus ration cards in the village, managing to get a British national’sname struck off the records. They even found loopholes in the applicationprocedure for election cards, when they discovered that the procedures statedby the election commission of India, the election commission of Goa and themamletdar were all different. But, their work isn’t just restricted to fightingagainst illegalities and vested interests in the village. They recently held astitching and cooking competition for women in the village. “We also empowerpeople in the village too,” Naik says with a smile.
Pilerne clearly emerged as the nerve center of the people’smovement in Goa and they along with the Village Groups of Goa have come to stayas credible pressure groups that force people centric policies.
