NT NETWORK
PANAJI
Santa Cruz villagers, on Friday, appealed to the government to protect their village in the ‘name of father of Opinion Poll Dr Jack de Sequeira.’
The residents of Santa Cruz staged a demonstration in front of Goa Forward Party office in the city opposing inclusion of Santa Cruz areas in Greater Panaji Planning and Development Authority (Greater Panaji PDA).
The villagers urged the government to exclude Santa Cruz areas from Greater Panaji PDA and also asked the local MLA and other MLAs to take up the issue during the forthcoming assembly session beginning on February 19.
Speaking to the media, the villagers said that within a week they will seek an appointment with the Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardesai, and submit a memorandum to him seeking exclusion of Santa Cruz areas from the Greater Panaji PDA.
The TCP Act needs to be strengthened by amending it, and this is the job of the legislatures and their job is not to be the members of PDA and do planning but here they are doing what they are not supposed to do, they said.
They further said that the government can carry out development in fast growing villages like Santa Cruz by amending the TCP Act.
Convenor of the Santa Cruz Village Development Committee Elsa Fernandes said that “just felling trees is not development. In order to develop any area you need to create infrastructure there.”
Paddy fields, Bondvol lake and forest areas are brought under Greater Panaji PDA. This shows there is hidden agenda to invite land mafia and make Santa Cruz a concrete jungle, she added.
The villagers claimed that the local MLA Anthony Fernandes and Santa Cruz sarpanch are with them, and added that “when we approached the Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, he asked us as – Why we failed to meet him before finalisation of notification?”
They appealed to the government to protect the village in the name of father of Opinion Poll Dr Jack de Sequeira.
They said that during the term of Victoria Fernandes, “we even faced lathis from police but opposed the inclusion of village in PDA then, and our struggle will continue in the future too and we want the village to be protected for posterity.”