At the last Colva Gram Sabha on May 17, Colvenkars passed a resolution for the Colva Panchayat not to give any permissions for any land notified by TCP dept under the Controversial Section 39-A of the TCP act. Also, as per the Panchayat Raj Act, there are enough legal provisions for the Panchayat to deny permissions to projects against the interest of the village. In my experience, the main control is with the Panchayat and many controversial projects are coming to villages because panchas are compromised and ordinary villagers who are not aware of their rights don’t keep a check on their panchas’ wrong doings. My concluding message to all villagers who want to preserve their land for posterity and keep out controversial projects is to please keep your panchas in check which includes attending gram sabhas in large numbers and also where possible attending the Panchayat body (internal) meeting as observers to keep a check, on what is being passed, stopped, acted upon as per the gram sabha resolution. The actual power is in our hands ie at the grass root level, so let's use it.
