Goemkarponn desk
CALANGUTE: The entire village of Calangute alongwith NGO’s was up in the arms over the Urban area tag for the coastal village, which forced the panchayat to resolve not to allow the notification. But now it has come to the fore that the same panchayat had requested government to grant urban area status to the village.
Following State-wide criticism the Village Panchayat Calangute last week passed a resolution unanimously to write to concern authorities to de-notify Calangute as Urban Area.
Calangute Sarpanch Shawn Martins said that the villagers had several apprehensions and they communicated the same to our ward members.
“We also thank our Hon. MLA & Minister Michael Lobo, ZP Dattaprasad Dabolkar, all our Panchayat Members and various groups like Citizen Front etc for supporting the resolution,” he said.
The decision came after villagers and activists had demanded the State government to de-notify the urban status of Calangute village.
The villagers said that the urbanization would mean increasing the FAR to 200 to 300, increasing taxes, more outsiders taking over and other.
They said the ‘structures have come up in fields with 80 per cent FAR, 100 per cent FAR is given to builders for construction on hills and others’ which is start of urbanization.
The Lie Exposed
Goemkarponn has laid its hands on documents, which will expose the lie of the Calangute panchayat.
The documents, which has the resolution taken by the same panchayat, which was then headed by Dinesh Simerpurushkar, resolved to ask State government to notify Calangute as Urban area.
The letter to the Revenue minister by then Sarpanch Dinesh S. Simerpurushkar said, “This resolution is issued only for the purpose of designating the village of Calangute as an Urban area and should not be construed to mean that the Village Panchayat of Calangute seeks to change the status of village of Calangute to municipal town or area. Therefore you are kindly requested to notify Calangute village as Urban area under section 2(38) of the Goa Daman and Diu land Revenue Code, 1968.”
TRANSCRIBED HEREIN BELOW THE RESOLUTION
OF THE MEETING HELD ON 23/09/2020
VIDE RESOLUTION NO. IX J (226)
Proposed by: Mr. Shawn Martins
Seconded by: all present members
- Calangute village from primarily a fishing and agriculture village has transformed over the years to a touristic village where in tourists from all over the country and world visit Calangute.
- During the initial start of the arrival of tourist some 40 years back, the traditional local inhabitants especially those living near had gradually started letting out their houses, or a room in their house to people to stay. The local inhabitants used to cook home food for them to eat and show them the beaches, market places, places of worship and other places around the village.
- Over the years there was a massive boom in tourism and our Calangute village has developed rapidly thanks to the beautiful picturesque beaches of Calangute, Baga, the warmth and hospitality of its people.
- Thanks to tourism many of our local villagers have extended their houses/homes, built hotels, resorts, guest houses, opened restaurants, built shops etc towards the coastal side initially and later development spread all over the village.
- Calangute Village Panchayat protects the interest of our traditional inhabitants who have extended their houses/homes especially those living along the coast and other areas in the village. A majority of the villagers earn their livelihood because of tourism and it provides employment either directly or indirectly to most of our villagers.
- Calangute Village has flourished because of tourism and so has infrastructure in our village. Calangute village has a total of over 3500 houses, PWD Water department has issued 2990 plus domestic and commercial piped PWD water connections to houses, Electricity Department has issued over 10000 domestic and commercial electricity connections, our village is connected by a series of MDR, PWD roads and Panchayat roads and Calangute Village has been brought under North Goa Planning & Development Authority in a notification dated January 8,2015.
- A sewage line of around 30.96kms has been laid in our village along with 3 Sewage pumping stations work is on and the Sewage Treatment Plant work is complete and will soon be operational in our village. Our village also has a State-of the-Art Garbage plant with a capacity of 100 tones out of which our village generates 30-40 tons of garbage per day. The Village of Calangute is substantially built up with a ratio of built up plots to that of total plots being more than 50% and have been provided with drainage and approach roads and other infrastructural facilities like water supply, sewerage mains, etc.
- The Definition of Urban Unit on 2011 Census the Unit of classification in this regard is ‘town’ for urban areas and ‘village’ for rural areas.The urban area comprises two type of towns viz. Statutory towns and Census towns. In the Census of India 2011, the definition of urban area adopted is as follows:
(a) Statutory Towns: All places with a municipality, corporation, Cantonment board or notified town area committee etc. are known as Statutory towns.
(b) Census Towns: All other places satisfying the following three criteria simultaneously are treated as Census Towns.
- i) A minimum population of 5,000
- ii) At least 75 per cent of male working population engaged in non-agricultural pursuits, and
iii) A density of population of at least 400 per sq.km. for identification of places which would qualify to be classified as ‘urban’, all villages, which, as per the 2001 Census had a population of 4,000 and above.
- As per the report released by Census India 2011, the Village of Calangute:
- has population of 13,810 of which 7,199 are males while 6,611 are females.
- Out of total population 5,882 were engaged in work or business activity. Of this 4,352 were males while 1,530 were females. In census survey, worker is defined as person who does business, job, service, and cultivator and labour activity. Of total 5882 working population, 79.97% were engaged in Main Work while 20.03% of total workers were engaged in Marginal Work.
- The area of Calangute is 11.7 square kilometers and as per report released by Census India 2011. The Population density of Calangute is 1178 persons/sq Km
- Urban area “means the area for the time being included within the limit of any municipal corporation or municipality constituted under any law for the time being in force or of any village or group of villages, which may be notified by the Government as urban area, regard being had to the density of population and of buildings in the area; and the expression “non-urban area” shall be constructed, accordingly.
- The Section 2 (38) of the Goa Daman and Dui Land Revenue Code 1968 defines urban area “urban area” means the area for the time being included within the limit of any municipal corporation or municipality constituted under any law for the time being inforce or of any village or group of villages, which may be notified by the Government as urban area, regard being had to the density of population and of buildings in the area; and the expression “non-urban area” shall be construed, accordingly;
- A release by the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) also mentioned that under Section 2 (38) of the Goa Land Revenue Code 1968(LRC), notification of any village as ‘urban area’ only affects the process of assessment of land revenue and this classification does not change any building or infrastructure guidelines as far as the Revenue department is concerned.”
- The Panchayat unanimously resolves to recommend to the Revenue Department to notify Calangute as Urban area under provision of Goa Daman and Diu Land Revenue Code 1986 while retaining its status as Village Panchayat.
- This Resolution is issued only for the purpose of designating the Village of Calangute as an Urban Area and should not be construed to mean that the Village Panchayat of Calangute seeks to change the status of the Village of Calangute to a Municipal town or Area.