NT NETWORK
CANACONA
More than 450 villagers of Loliem, Shelli and Polem attended the gram sabha that was convened by Loliem-Polem panchayat on Wednesday to discuss critical issues like water resources, housing, livelihood, animal husbandry, forest conservation etc.
The meeting was presided over by the sarpanch Bhushan Prabhugaonkar with 7 out of 9 members in attendance. The Polem panch Virendra was absent.
Residents termed the land including fields, water resources, forests ‘inalienable’ assets and stressed that these assets ought to be preserved for the future generation.
It was decided that all the plateaus in the village be preserved for the future generations with a focus on development of animal husbandry, dairy and grasslands of the village for the posterity.
Villagers agreed that the forests are an invaluable resource to the villagers and decided to take up social forestry. They pointed out that the land available for housing in the village is under threat due to “speculative real estate and other construction projects.”
They also deliberated on water shortage in the village. They said that there is no possibility of water supply from outside the panchayat area so it is their bounden duty to preserve the Bhagwati plateau as the water bodies there keep recharging the groundwater table, which prevents the wells in their areas from drying.
They also resolved “not to have any non-agricultural projects now or in the future.” They further said that the grazing lands should be preserved without ‘any interference.’
They resolved that all the community assets of the village such as comunidade lands, government forest lands and CRZ areas, especially, Bhagvatimoll be conserved and that the same should not be allowed for any real estate or construction projects.
The panchayat had called for a special gram sabha to discuss the proposed IIT project issue on the Bhagwati plateau.