The updated report of the Gram Sabha of Sao Mathias Panchayat (Vanxim) which was held on 28th July 2013 at 10.45 am

The letter which was submitted for the Gram Sabha by Maggie Silveira, the President of Ilha de Vanxim Association included the following points for discussion.

1.       Is there any proposal for any developmental work at Vanxim sent by Ozone group of companies? To this Sarpanch replied saying that there is not a single proposal has come from Ozone group of companies.

2.       Is there any proposal for developmental work sent by Mahendra Gaunekar? To this Sarpanch replied that there is not a single proposal has come up from Mahendra Gaunekar too for Vanxim.

3.       What is the update of the government primary school which is about to collapse in Vanxim? To this Sarpanch said that as presently this school is not functioning it will not be attended on priority as in the whole of Goa there are schools that are needed to be attended by the government. We cannot accept this answer as this is only place which functions as voting booth for Lok Sabha, Assembly, Zilla Parishad and Panchayat elections. Tarpaulin sheets are put to cover the mud which is falling from the ceiling on the heads of the officers sitting and voters casting their votes. It is very miserable to know the fact of such a situation where Sarpanch Gurudas Bhomkar needs to do something about it on priority basis. Or else it is shame for him to cast the votes in such a place where there is no toilet, no bathroom. It is highly inconvenient for the people who are coming there as officers on election duty.

There was heated discussion by Sadanand Bhonsle regarding retaining wall which is objected by 57 people with signatures and submitted to Gram Sabha, where the same has been recorded in the minutes of the Gram Sabha. 

The water pipeline coming to Vanxim is in disastrous situation as the matter pending for the last long 15 months without repairs for the pipes that is floating in the Mandovi river. This pipeline is not a luxury for Vanxecars, it is a necessity which Sarpanch Gurudas Bhomkar does not understand till date. The present excuse that the Sarpanch gave is that the nut-bolts are not available.

Times of India report on this is available here.

The next day of the Gram Sabha on 29^th July 2013 Joaquim Fernandes of Times of India interviewed Maggie Silveira, President of Ilha de Vanxim Association and also President of Bharat Mukti Morcha, Goa Unit. Here is a text of the interview:

1.      What kind of project do the villagers fear is coming up in Vanxim?

Maggie: When project is not proposed at the Panchayat level the question of type of project does not arise.

2.      How much area is involved in the project?

Maggie: As the proposal has not reached our panchayat we do not know the total area involved in the project.

3.      How do villagers fear will the project affect them?

Maggie: Fear does not arise as the proposal has not come to the Panchayat.

4.      Are there any telltale signs now of the project coming up? Has any preliminary work started?

Maggie: With no proposal coming to the Panchayat and when there are court cases pending before deputy collector’s court, mamlatdar’s court and Administrative Tribunal Court the question of starting any work does not arise.

5.      What steps has the Ilha de Vanxim Association taken so far to prevent the project?

Maggie: There are huge and massive steps taken and actions initiated, and also strong support of all the NGOs of Goa and beyond, and a big support from five crore of people of Bharat Mukti Morcha which is National Movement that is spread in all the 12 talukas of Goa too including Darbandora.

6.      Which authorities have you written to? Whom have you met? Have you written to the present government, previous government, present chief minister, previous chief minister?

Maggie: Wherever necessary and important higher authorities are already informed in detail with video recordings and photographs including survey number 8 which is a water body plus Mangroves cut by Mahendra Gaunekar in survey number 8, plus the fields that are low lying areas which are khazan lands with thick growth of Mangroves and mud flats. Can such a body be touched by law?

7.      Does the local MLA have any role in this?

Maggie: He is fully and completely manipulating not only the gram sabha in the past but also manipulated the office of Chief Town Planner by taking 300 people even migrant labourers by paying each one Rs.1000/-. 5 buses went to Chief Town Planner’s office with 300 people. Such a man should never be voted back in election as he is a destroyer of Goa and Goa’s wealth that is land.

8.      Has the association met with the project promoters?

Maggie: We are not at all interested even to see the face of such promoter forget about meeting him. Nor do we want to know that he even exists.

9.      Are the villagers unanimously against the project or are there some villagers who support the project?

Maggie: As there is no proposal in the village Panchayat of the project from any promoter the question of villagers being supporting or opposing does not arise.

10.  How many people/households live in Vanxim?

Maggie: Most of the people come to Vanxim in July from abroad as their children are studying and parents working, and in the months of October, December and May. Even if stranger comes to Vanxim they love Vanxim so much.

11.  What is the total area of Vanxim including residential area and fields?

Maggie: For records, check with land survey department.

12.  What action is the Isle de Vanxim association planning against the project?

Maggie: As said earlier action is huge and massive, and all our ancestors who are dead and gone will never allow any such disastrous project to come up in Vanxim. It is a holy place and it is well protected. We believe in what we write.

13.  Any pertinent information...

Maggie: When there was not a single proposal which never came up to the panchayat the then deputy sarpanch Tulsidas Kundaikar highly manipulated the entire Gram Sabha and when the present Panchayat panel was called by the Mahendra Gaunekar and the so-called Ozone group, Mahendra Gaunekar was saying sorry again and again to the present Sarpanch Gurudas Bhusan Bhomkar for manipulating Gram Sabha then. So this shows very clearly that the Panchayat was ruled by Mahedra Gaunekar and Pandurang Madkaikar where by four ladies were arrested without serving call letter by then PI Francis Corte. Illegal Survey was carried on in Vanxim by Mahendra Gaunekar on the land occupied by the Vanxecars. And when the ladies approached and asked for NOC everything was turned upside down and ladies were arrested. The entire village and the NGOs from entire Goa seized the Old Goa Police station. And the four ladies came out triumphantly, boldly and courageously. This is what Ilha de Vanxim Association stands for.

Sorry state of education in Goa conveyed to the Goa government

Date: 30/07/2013                                     

To

The Director

Directorate of Education

Porvorim Bardez-Goa.

Sub.: Regarding Corporal punishment meted out to students

         by a drunkard teacher.

         

Sir,

This is regarding the corporal punishment meted out to a few students of std. VIth by a male teacher under the influence of alcohol in Dr. Ambedkar English High school, Kuchelim, Mapusa Bardez-Goa on 25/07/2013.

Immediately two frightened victim boy students ran away from class and filed a police complaint at the Karaswada police station against the accused teacher named Mr. Dattaram Chari.

As noticed and complained by the students the accused was attending his duty after having alcohol. During the 6th period the accused was taking class for std. VIth.  While in the class he got a phone call and to receive the call he left the class. After 20 minutes he re-entered the class with a wooden stick in his hand. As soon as he re- entered the class the students could get a smell of liquor. 

He then started beating the students. He beat four students namely Krishnaveni Patil, Dadapir Honnalli, Akash Nandurkar, and Heena Jawadgi .All of them are minors. When Krishnaveni asked the accused for the permission to go out for toilet; the accused hit the girl on her back with great force.  Soon the red mark appeared on her back as a result of hitting with the stick as informed by Krishnaveni. When Dadapir said he could get a smell of alcohol the accused beat him saying the smell was not of an alcohol but that of the stick in his hand. He also beat Akash and Heena. When the accused left the class when his period ended   Akash and Dadapir ran to the nearby police station at Karaswada and filed a police complaint against the accused. The police registered the complaint given by the two minor boys and accordingly contacted parents of both the victims.

  

It is learnt that the said teacher is in the habit of having alcohol and beating students with a stick when on duty.

‘The Herald’ dated 26/07/2013 says, the state Government has come up with the new educational policy which seek to have compound walls and CCTVs in the schools to put a check and control increasing  rape cases on minors in Goa. The government instead should control malpractices of teachers like Dattaram Chari which leads to produce lewd and vulgar young minds. The accused is also in the   habit of passing vulgar comments in the class while teaching the science subject. He was circulating pornographic pictures and material to students till he got warning from some parents. Such acts of teachers will spoil the characters of students.

    It is learnt that the accused does not teach but directly gives Xerox copies of questions and answers of the examination. Even he provides question papers to few students of his choice prior to exam. If any student requests the accused to explain the content from the textbooks, then he gives punishment to those students along with vulgar comments like, ghati students, illegitimate children. All the time he teaches only biology and not physics or chemistry which is also a part from science subject. Even when he teaches other science subjects like Biology he mixes it up with lewd pornography.

 Some time he comes in classes and organises a sleeping competition asking the students to sleep only to avoid teaching. He tells students whoever sleeps fast would be awarded with 5 marks in his subject. He also asks students to collect money to arrange parties and enjoy hot drinks.  

He also threatens students that if they tell anything to anybody against him then he would set question papers on portion which is not touched by him.

Always he enters very late to class; sometime he does not even turn up to class and the class is left unattended with students out of the class shouting and roaming all over the school premises even disturbing the other classes and most of the time he send students on the playground for P.E. during Science/ Geography period which he takes. He is not serious about teaching even to higher classes of IXth and Xth.

It is very much depressing  that the said teacher is  the incharge of Harassment and victimise committee of the school as well as acting Headmaster of the school.

There are various complaints about the accused from students as well as from parents but no action is taken against the said accused by the school management.

Many a time students have complained to the manager about the said accused for various reasons but the manager dispelled the students and did not allow anybody to give written complain about the accused. None of his malpractices are stopped by the management. Thus understood that the management is least bothered about the students’ future and rather protects the said accused for unknown reasons. 

   

The accused teacher is a surplus Asstt. Teacher from Peoples’ High School at Kamurlim, Bardez-Goa deputed in Dr. Ambedkar English High School, Kuchelim, Mapusa Bardez-Goa in 2012.  

Since many parents are illiterate they do not speak out openly. The students too get afraid to speak on his malpractices in the fear that the accused and the management would take an action against them. The students are afraid that the management may deliberately fail them in the exam  to demoralize them or would expel them from school. So the students here have become silent sufferers at the hands of accused and the management of the school.

Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Morcha condemns such acts of malpractices and the act of corporal punishment meted out to the students by the accused.

You are therefore urged to take immediate punitive action against the erring teacher within one week failing which we will be forced to take further steps.

Thanking you                                             

Yours faithfully             

                                                            

      Sd/- 

                                             

Gautam Kamble

President

Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Morcha,

Mapusa Unit.   

Bharatiya Vidhayarthi Morcha strongly condemns the mid day meal scheme

  

The government’s policy of the Mid-Day Meal distribution in  schools all over the country has proved failure from the date of its implementation till date. Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Morcha (भारतीय विध्यार्थी मोर्चा), Goa Unit strongly condemns the scheme as it has taken its heavy toll on human lives all over India and advises the state government to stop the scheme immediately.

Along with number of students and parents some innocent teachers have also became victims of the scheme and have lost their services. There have been cases in different parts of India of students’ suffering from vomiting, stomach-ache as a result of having mid-day meal in schools. It is heart wrenching to hear about the case where 23 students died of food- poisoning in Bihar recently. There have been cases of food poisoning through the mid day meal in Orissa and in Madhya Pradesh on 27/7/2013.

The schools in Goa are not exception to such cases. There has been a case of food poisoning through the mid day meal in Usgao- Ponda in St. Joseph High School where 23 students were victims of the mid day meal. There has been a case of food poisoning even in Korgao at Kamaleshwar High School on 27/7/2013 where 19 students fell sick. There were worms and spiders in the mid day meal that the students ate and suffered from stomach ache and had to be immediately admitted in the hospital. There have been three cases of food poisoning through the mid day meal within a month in the state of Goa which has put the parents, children as well as teachers under stress and has made them fearful.

  The mid day meal which was supposed to be introduced by the government to build and maintain students’ good health has proved to deteriorate the students’ health to such an extent that some students have lost their lives and the parents have lost their children. The question arose in the young minds of students and parents, whether such cases of food poisoning through the mid day meal scheme are accidental or deliberate.

 Considering these facts and ill effects of the mid-day meal, Bharatiya Vidhayarthi Morcha strongly condemns the mid day meal scheme and advise the state government to immediately scrape it.

 School timing must be reverted to 8.am to 1.pm so the students can have their lunch at home on time.