Ponda: Stating that the rampant land conversion would spoil the village landscape, Bhoma locals have opposed the conversion of village lands under Section 39A of the TCP Act. The villagers have asked the panchayat to register its opposition to the move. A group of villagers met Bhoma-Adcolna sarpanch Abdul Khan on Monday with their demand.The villagers have already been opposing four-laning of the highway passing through Bhoma, as the villagers believe their temples, central to the social and the cultural fabric of the village, will be lost to demolitions for the highway.Sanjay Naik, a villager, said that they learnt about the land conversions after they saw a notification. He said a woman had sought a zone change for village land from sloppy non-developmental land to a settlement zone.Agitating villagers said 36 plots had been subdivided on village land. Naik said some people had created plots on PWD-acquired land and applied to convert them into a settlement zone.He questioned why, if PWD had its land in the village, it wanted to acquire people’s land for the proposed four-laning of the highway passing through the village, which has been opposed vehemently by locals for the last few years.The sarpanch said the panchayat is with the villagers and will discuss the issue in the panchayat meeting.Naik also threatened that the villagers would even come to the streets if govt fails to stop the land conversions.With a population of around 3,000, Bhoma is one of Goa’s smallest villages. A road passing through this village acts as a crucial link between Ponda taluka and the state capital. As the road is now set for widening, locals have been worried it will mean the end of their village life, as a significant part of Bhoma has already been taken up by industrial units at Kundaim earlier.
