MARGAO: Three prominent themes emerged in numerous gram sabhas held on Sunday: opposition to the Sunburn festival in South Goa, support for granting equal status to Konkani in the Roman script, and demands to repeal recent Town and Country Planning (TCP) amendments.
Equal status for Romi Konkani
Chicalim, Carmona, Nuvem, Varca, Sarzora, Chinchinim and Camorlim from Salcete were amongst the panchayats across Goa to pass resolutions in favour of the Romi Konknni language. There were a total of 18 gram sabhas on Sunday that passed such resolutions including that of Quellosim and Reis Magos. This brings the total number of gram sabhas that have passed resolutions demanding equal status for Konkani in Romi and Devanagari scripts in the State’s Official Language Act, to 33. The gram sabha members also lamented about the injustice done to those who speak this language and they questioned why it was not granted official status for all these years.
South Goa rejects Sunburn festival
Another key issue was that of the new Sunburn potential venue with gram sabha members as well as panch members going to lengths to talk about why they are against the festival, not just if it happens in South Goa but also in North Goa too. They have vowed to oppose any move to try and host the festival in the South and spoke about the problems it can cause not just for the youth but issues with traffic congestion etc during the festival dates. Chicalim, Carmona, Nuvem, Varca, Sarzora, Chinchinim and Camorlim were amongst the gram sabhas to pass resolutions against Sunburn on Sunday.
Opposition to TCP Act amendments
There was strong opposition to the recent TCP amendments too with concerns being raised about the large-scale land conversions, zoning changes and other related developments that have taken place in favour of the real estate companies and not the interest of the villages, whose identity is stake in the face of rapid concretization of Goa’s open spaces. Gram sabha members and panch members in the villages of Carmona, Nuvem and Varca discussed this in detail and gave examples of what is happening in their own villages and talukas and criticized the government for facilitating all this with the recent amendments like 39A etc. It was also argued that the amendments were anti-Constitutional as they violated provisions under Right to Information Act, Right to Life and also the Article that speaks about the formation of District Planning Committees (DPCs) wherein the panchayats are bypassed when such decisions are taken. The villagers also spoke about how the villages are suffering as a result, particularly in situations like heavy monsoons where there is flooding, water logging and it is the residents as well as the local farmers, fishermen who are the ones having to deal with the consequences. They resolved that such amendments have to be repealed with immediate effect.