Panaji widened across Mandovi
Sandesh Prabhudesai
27 August 2002
In spite of a stiff opposition, Goa
government has passed the bill to make Panaji a municipal
corporation, incorporating fully or partly nine more
villages around the capital city.
While the legislation was introduced
and passed within two days, the BJP government faced
a stir including morcha and bandh from the villagers
while the opposition Congress legislators also raised
a pandemonium in the House and later staged a walk out
last night.
Rather than the decision to extend
boundaries of Goa's capital city even across river Mandovi,
everybody is surprised that majority part of the Taleigao,
adjacent to Panaji, is now de-linked from the existing
Panaji municipal area, reverting it back to the village
panchayat.
Incidentally, the nine newly incorporated
villages belong to five Assembly constituencies belonging
to the opposition legislators while the excluded municipal
area belongs to the ruling minister Babush Monseratte,
of the United Goans Democratic Party.
"It is a politically motivated decision,
the reason for which neither the concerned MLAs nor
the village sarpanchas were taken into confidence",
alleged Congress deputy leader Dayanand Narvekar. Two
villages of his Aldona constituency will be now part
of Panaji municipal corporation.
Bowing before the public pressure,
though the BJP hurriedly passed the bill, made an amendment
later to implement it only after consulting the elected
representatives. "The corporation is a necessity of
the hour and not a political requirement", stated chief
minister Manohar Parrikar.
While Panaji is rapidly expanding in
the adjacent villages like Taleigao, St Cruz, Merces
and even Bambolim, the Porvorim plateau across the Mandovi
river has also developed as a township. Situated on
a hillock, the Porvorim plateau is surrounded by six
villages.
Secondly, the government has already
shifted its Assembly complex in Porvorim while the Secretariat
complex is also coming up adjacent to that, besides
several other important government offices. Similarly,
important complexes like GMC hospital, Goa University
etc are also being shifted to places like Bambolim,
a village adjacent to Panaji.
As no village panchayat is in a position
to provide planned support like roads, sanitation, drainage
and other facilities to the expanded housing and other
government complexes, the corporation primarily seeks
to provide proper infrastructural support to the whole
area, under one roof.
The areas incorporated are thus entire
villages of St Cruz and Bambolim adjacent to Panaji,
besides parts of Merces village. Similarly, across the
Mandovi river, it is the whole village of Penha da France,
besides parts falling in Porvorim but belonging to Reis
Magos, Pilerna, Sangolda, Socorro and Salvador do Munde.
Francis Silveira (St Andre), Victoria
Fernandes (St Cruz), Dayanand Narvekar (Aldona), Anthony
Fernandes (Calangute) of the Congress as well as Dr
Wilfred de Souza (Saligao) of the NCP represent these
areas.
Though Parrikar claims that only village
part of Taleigao is excluded from the existing Panaji
municipality, minister and Taleigao MLA Babush Monseratte
appears to have succeeded in fulfilling his election
promise to bring majority part of it back to the village
panchayat, which was merged into the Panaji municipality
in 1994.
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