CANACONA, JULY 13

Residents of Lone village in the district blocked traffic on the road connecting Narwana with Tohana this morning over the "failure' of the authorities concerned to drain out stagnant dirty water from the area. Traffic came to a halt for about 30 minutes from 9 am after the protesters, including women and children, staged a sit-in on the highway. The protesters alleged that the authorities had not paid any attention towards their grievance and this had forced them to come on the road.

Residents of Sirsaim-Tivim have unanimously resolved to oppose mega housing projects in their village. At a largely attended Gram Sabha on Sunday, the villagers demanded the revocation of a construction licence issued to a mega housing project at Walkeshwar vaddo near Bodiem-Tivim. The panchayat had issued the licence for the construction of a project, comprising 22 bungalows, 10 apartments, one tennis court and two swimming pools.

Goans who are up in arms against mega projects in the villages are using gram sabha (village council) to oppose such projects. But questions have been raised by politicians and some intellectuals too, whether the gram sabhas have the powers to stop mega projects. In the light of this, it becomes important to understand the real meaning of gram panchayat and the gram sabha and more importantly to make people aware of their rights in a panchayat set-up.

With Assembly elections just round the corner the MCD on Monday, made another populist announcement. According to the civic agency, a self-occupied residential property of any original owner in the rural or urban villages would be exempted from paying property tax.

As many as 1,056 houses with 3,987 people in 16 villages, are likely to vanish due to the Vodarevu and Nizampatnam port infrastructure corridor (Vanpic) project in Prakasam district which will be set up at Rs 16,000 crore. A special collector had been appointed for acquiring 9,314 acres for the Vanpic project. But Communist leaders warned that they would never accept the project.

Encouraged by the response to its rural tourism project, the Government has identified 14 more village sites which would be opened for foreign tourists in the near future. Spread over six states, these new sites would add to the 15 model villages that already exist and are attracting an impressive number of tourists.

The Government has allocated Rs.3,720 million in 2008 to improve and maintain the rural road network countrywide under the Maga Neguma programme to achieve socio-economic development, mobility, connectivity and accessibility needs of the people. Acting Minister for Highways and Road Development, T.B. Ekanayake told the Daily News that 1,208 kms of rural roads have been identified for improvement in this year. The development will take place at district level under the Maga Neguma programme.

The concept of "global village' refers to the process of transforming the whole world into a small village by integrating different nations. It aimed at making a country economically, technologically sophisticated and socially cohesive and integrated. In India, the concept of "global village' is getting widespread popularity with the introduction of the globalisation process in 1990's. By opening and liberalising the Indian economy, globalisation has aimed at integrating the Indian economy with the world economy.