Govt rejects p’yat plea for 2nd time, says land transferred to police dept for IRB camp
the goan I network
MARGAO
Just imagine a situation where villagers cannot utilise their own village land for a public utility purpose with the government drawing up alternate plans against the wishes of the people.
Curtorkars are facing a similar situation with the government rejecting the village panchayat’s plea to part with a small portion of the leprosy hospital land admeasuring over one lakh square meters for solid waste
management.
Reason: The government has already transferred the hospital land to the police department to set up an Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) camp here.
For the second time in six months, the Director (Administration), Directorate of Health Services, Maria Seomara De Souza has turned down the plea of the Curtorim panchayat to hand over land admeasuring 3000 square meters to the panchayat body for garbage management.
In August last, the Director (Administration), Directorate of Health Services had written a similar letter to the Curtorim sarpanch rejecting a request for land admeasuring 500 square meters to be used for garbage management.
The government’s decision has not gone down well with the villagers of Curtorim, who have been demanding that the entire leprosy hospital land, admeasuring over a lakh square meters, is reserved for public utility projects to cater to the needs of the villagers.
The rejection of the panchayat’s plea comes against the backdrop of the fact that the proposal to set up an IRB camp in the village had come under strong opposition from the villagers, including local MLA Reginaldo Lourenco and the local panchayat body.
Says Curtorim sarpanch Rui Menezes, “The panchayat as well as Curtorkars are shocked that the government has once again rejected the request to allot a portion of the land admeasuring 3000 square meters to the panchayat. This is totally unacceptable and the villagers will certainly agitate against the government decision.”
The sarpanch demanded to know how the government can push the IRB project on the people of Curtorim when the local populace has been demanding that the land be reserved for public utility projects.
“Where are the people of Curtorim supposed to go if they want to set up public utility projects when the village cannot get even meager land admeasuring 3000 square meters from the leprosy hospital property to set up solid waste management,” Rui wondered.
He said the panchayat and villagers will hold a meeting in the village after the Carnival festivities to protest against the government’s decision and demand that the leprosy hospital property is reserved for the benefit of Curtorkars.
“We are not opposed to the IRB camp per se, but the villagers feel that the IRB camp can come up anywhere in the state, and not necessarily in Curtorim village,”
he added.
Incidentally, at the village gram sabha held in August last, the Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco had assured the villagers that he is strongly opposed to the IRB camp on the leprosy hospital land. In fact, he had told the members that former Chief Minister, late Manohar Parrikar had promised him to scrap the IRB camp from coming up at Curtorim, but ultimately decided to hand over the land to the police department.
