The office of South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) is abuzz with feverish activity, apparently to give final touches to the Outline Development Plan (ODP) 2032, with objections and suggestions received from members of the public almost reaching the final stage of hearing.
In the fields opposite the Margao railway station, on the city’s southern side and at Madel, near the wholesale fish market at the city’s northern entrance, farmers are back to what they are doing over the years – to keep a date with the fields of their ancestors in the new season.
These beleaguered farmers seemed to have no idea or knowledge whether the SGPDA or the government would listen to their plea and revert back the zone of their agricultural fields, changed to commercial and institution, back to green zone in the ODP. They, however, seemed hoping against hope that the government would listen to their pleas and revert the commercial zone back to agriculture so that the lush green fields forever remain the lungs of the city in the midst of a concrete jungle.
Take note, these two agricultural fields were acquired by the Goa government exactly two decades ago to set up transportation centres – a truck terminus at Madel and a transportation centre, opposite the Margao railway station.
While the government had bulldozed its way by acquiring thousands of square meters of agricultural fields for a pittance, farmers continue the agricultural practice of their ancestors on these very fields through their sheer grit and determination to save and protect the fields for posterity.
Take note, whenever the SGPDA opens up the Margao ODP for suggestions and objections, farmers cultivating the fields at Madel and opposite the Margao railway station would unfailingly file their objections and suggestions with a plea to change the zone from commercial to green and return their fields back to them.
The situation was no different this time round as the SGPDA invited objections to the ODP 2032 with farmers knocking the doors of the Planning body to revert back the fields back to green zone.
Fields opposite Margao railway station
It was a public holiday on Thursday on account of Eid, but a group of farmers kept the date with the agricultural fields of their ancestors as they joined hands in the transplanting operations opposite the Margao railway station.
Having foiled all attempts by the government to usurp their ancestral agricultural fields over the last 20 years, the farmers got down into the fields for the sowing operation, with the hope of eking a livelihood with the yield from these fields.
They seem keeping their fingers crossed how the SGPDA would deal with their suggestion to revert back the zone of these fields to agriculture or return back the fields to them. What they know for sure is that these fields has helped them not just to sustain livelihood throughout the year, but helped to protect the last green zones in the commercial capital.
Progressive farmer Claudius Dias, who has been waging a sustained battle along with the farmers to protect the fields opposite the Margao railway station from being converted into a commercial zone, made a fervent plea to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to retain the GSUDA-acquired fields for agricultural activity. “These fields opposite the Margao railway station can help achieve Chief Minister’s dream of making Goa Atmanirbhar and Swayampurna Goem. We grow two crops on these fields, paddy as well as vegetables. If there’s some irrigation water arrangement, our farmers can even contribute in a big way in supplying vegetables from these fields to the Horticulture Corporation”, he said.
He added: “These are the few green patches left in the commercial capital. We can even call them the lungs of the city. What we have been asking successive governments is to revert the zone of the acquired fields to green zone and allow us to cultivate the fields for paddy and vegetable production. Give back our fields and we will ensure that these fields remain a green zone for generations to come and contribute to the environment”.
Fields at Madel
A visit to the fields at Madel near the wholesale fish market revealed that farmers are bracing up for the sowing operation. One could come across preparations underway at the lush green fields spread across an area of 1.37 lakh square meters.
Like their counterparts waging a battle to protect their fields opposite the Margao railway station, farmers from Madel have been on the roads, from day one when the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) acquired the fields to set up a truck terminus around two decades ago.
In the ODP 2028, the zone of a portion of the acquired land was changed to Special commercial zone to set up a Tech Hub. The decision did not go down well with the farmers who two years ago knocked the doors of the SGPDA when the ODP was again opened for suggestion and objections from the public.
In fact, farmers and citizens alike had made an impassioned plea to then PDA Chairman, Wilfred D’Sa to restore the status of their cultivated paddy fields to the original agriculture zone as it existed in the ODP 2006.
Famers maintain that though GSUDA had bulldozed its way by acquiring the fields for a pittance and against their wishes, they had never stopped cultivation on the fields belonging to their ancestors.
With the SGPDA in the process of giving final touches to the ODP 2032, farmers from Madel hope that the PDA and the government would see reason and revert the zone of their fields from commercial back to agriculture.
