GOLTIM-NAVELIM: The villagers of Goltim-Navelim in Divar are facing immense hardships over poor ferry services. They said that over the last decade there has been no new ferryboat plying between Ribandar and Divar.
They are, however, divided over the construction of a bridge, with many of them wanting to keep Divar as an ‘island’ and prevent the village from being exploited by the land mafia and builders lobby.
In the past, agriculture was the prime occupation of the people in the village but due to the poor maintenance of bundhs, and inundation of farms by fish farmers, large tracts of agriculture land are lying fallow.
As a result, mangroves have mushroomed everywhere in the paddy fields. The islanders feel that the government should come out with a law on mangroves that once the bundhs are repaired, the mangroves could be removed from the fields and re-grown elsewhere.
The villagers feel that strict supervision of bundhs should be done through mamlatdar to protect the fields, as many of the fields are flooded artificially by the manshenkars (sluice gate lessees) for their own interest (for carrying out fish farming).
They feel that once this is achieved by the panchayat, the tenants will be able to carry out farming, which has become profitable due to subsidies being offered by the government.
There are approximately 4,000 houses in Goltim-Navelim (Divar); many villagers have moved either to Panaji or Mumbai in search of jobs and many of the Portuguese-era houses are closed or ruined due to want of maintenance.
The islanders are yet to get continuous water supply and uninterrupted power supply. Also there is no mobile and broadband
connectivity.
The residents receive water on alternate day. The wells here yield brackish water due to saline water ingress, which happens as fields are flooded with sea water and saltwater intrusion reduces freshwater storage in the aquifers.
The fields are inundated with saline water by breaching the bunds by those involved in fish farming, informed the villagers and blamed the mamlatdar for not taking any action against those involved the illegality.
The panchayat has taken the initiative to collect dry garbage and plastic, however, some anti-social elements dump the wet garbage along the roadside thereby ‘ruining’ the area with a stench.
During the tenure of former sarpanch Prasad Harmalkar, many farmers had availed of subsidy from the government for farming.
Harmalkar is also credited for getting the roads hot-mix carpeted in the village.
The villagers are of the opinion that the panchayat should desilt the drains before the onset of the monsoon through the WRD as otherwise many fields will get flooded.
The residents laud the work carried out by the former sarpanch that of constructing retaining walls in accident prone areas and repairing the bundhs.
The villagers had opposed the marinas that were proposed near the ferry point, and even forced the panchayat to cancel permissions granted for it.
