Chandor Ganv Vhodd Zaum!

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Work We Need to Take Up Immediately - Let�s Begin?

You must be the change you wish to see in the world. - Mahatma Gandhi

There are major challenges ahead of all Chandorcars, as the suggestions made and the needs expressed during the meetings of the Chandor Development Forum show. Our panchayat will, we hope, begin implementing the major suggestions immediately (they carry the force of a gram sabha resolution, no less!). But Chandor�s development over the next few years is a giant undertaking and is, therefore, every Chandorite�s responsibility! If you�d like to help, here�s a small list of projects you might like to get started on. Even an hour a day on each assignment should produce results soon. Show yourself what you are capable of!

The very best to all of us!

Project: Campaign to stop the illegal blasting of the Bobcol hill in Hatram Mod, the hills near Voil� Todem (there are political bigwigs involved) and the Mulem hill touching Ghotmorod in Cavorim.
Present co-ordinators: Julio D�Silva, Luel Fernandes.
People actively involved in the campaign: The affected residents of Binddimod, Covatem, Monte Socol, Hatram Mod.
Action contemplated: Getting a court injunction and stay order on the blasting of hills in all villages abutting Chandor. Volunteers needed to raise awareness about the hazards to the ecology among residents of Nessai and Paroda. You may be required to be physically present at the site to stop the hill cutting. Anyone willing to lend a hand or help in any other way is welcome to link hands with the campaigners. Please volunteer.

Project: To stop the pollution of our river by the Impala beer factory in Assolda, and of our air by the MSL factory in Curtorim and the smelting units in San Jose de Areal.
What needs to be done: Enquire with affected locals and verify the problem, encourage them to complain to the panchayat and to the health authorities, take up the issue with the companies concerned, involve the press and other media. Study press and other documentation of similar issues elsewhere in Goa (the Metastrips case, the Zuari Agro case, the Nylon 666 agitation etc). Enthuse your friends and neighbours to join the campaign and put an end to the despoliation of our environment.
Co-ordinator of the campaign: No one so far. Do you want to take it on?
People actively involved: No one at present. Do you want to start the campaign?

Project: How best do we utilize the common property resources in our communidade lands? Where do we locate the various projects proposed in this 5-year plan? Does some one want to study the communidades of Cavorim and Chandor as they are constituted at present? The shareholders, the land area, the annual income, the dividends paid etc?

Project: Prepare a roadmap for the Chandor village land cooperative. How do such co-operatives function the world over, in Goa, and in the rest of India? Can we start the Chandor Village co-operative, the farmer�s club and the Chandor Tourism Development Society within the next six months?

Project: Start waste recycling in Chandor immediately.
What needs to be done: Pressurise the panchayat to start cleaning up the village, particularly the fish market, without any further delay. (There is enough money � the panchayat closed the financial year 2005 in April 2006 with a fat bank balance of over Rs.14 lakhs!). Think the entire waste recycling project through, right from garbage collection to composting to recycling to sale, or disposal, as fertiliser. Work out the entire economics of the project, including staff salaries, uniforms, work hours, collection times etc.

Projekt: Chandorch� bhashe� mana� suvat dia!
Am� uloitai ti bhas sobhe mazar, chodd ko�n Chandorch� publick suvatinnim � Goeam her koddem sodd�� aikom eichea borem kotinn. At� �ogot zala amghe Sashtti gorvan soglea suvatinnim uloupacho. Am� Konknichea her dialectancher add uloinai, punn, zat� tithu amim, football tornament zalear, concertam, zaum tiatranim, ami Chandr� uloitai ti bhas usar korchi.

Project: Make our local school a centre of educational excellence. Work with the principal, headmaster, PTA, the ex-students� association and make the school a model to follow in all of Goa. We have to somehow keep all our students within the warm embrace of the village!

Project: Stop the annual flooding. Get to the bottom of this annual nuisance and develop a programme of action involving all affected villages along the Kushawati. Make two rice crops possible every year, perhaps, even three!

Project: Take the politics out of the panchayat, put development back on the agenda. Do this through the gram sabha or as a member of the panchayat or, as an orrad Chandorcar!

Project: Restore the glamour in agriculture, in manual labour. Have our college students, for instance, take up village development projects during the vacations. Will smart uniforms do the trick? Will good looking guys and dolls help? Profitability surely will. Think about it, and pick up that spade!

Project: How do we utilise our non-paddy communidade land, make it economically productive, and still retain the agricultural and wetlands character of the village? Illustrate a project to be taken up.

Project: How about developing sporting activity for our girls and women, or help the Chandor Club do it?

Project: Urge the fabrica and the village administration to build public toilets for the convenience of football spectators, tiatr audiences and the multitudes who throng the fair during the feast on January 6. The planned sports complex near the school must not fail to include this amenity in its design.

Project: Be a watchdog of our common land resources. Like the brave women and men of Binddimod, Molla, Sailant, Mena Covatem, Monte Socol and Hatram Mod � who have shown us how!

Project: Help set up the Chandor website. Darwin and Dexter are already working on it, apparently. All they need is a little start money, a revenue model (to pay for and sustain the site) and your writing abilities. Soon we can get a venture going which would not only do Chandor proud but, if we are smart enough, may even bring in a little poishe!

Project: Study the origin of the names of our various wards, or, why not, the exact origin of the name Chandra with reference to our village. When exactly did the village get the name, where is the earliest mention of the name etc. Do this conscientiously enough and, pretty soon you will be a renowned local historian, and have insights to offer all of us can benefit from! Also, we desperately need to know why Chandorcars are linked to the buffalo. Anyone want to take this project on?

Project: Does someone want to get to the bottom of the wildlife being driven into our village by probably destructive activity in the forests beyond Cavorim? How can we save these forests, and thus help our leopards, tigers and mongooses survive in their natural habitat? Do your bit for our endangered animals!

Project: Take a videocam and record one day in the life of our village.

Project: Prepare a Konkani version of Chandor Ganv Vhodd Zaum: The Five-year People�s Plan for the Sustainable Development of Chandor (2007-2012). Make copies and distribute to people who prefer the plan amch� bhashent. Keep a few copies in the Chandor-Cavorim and Guirdolim libraries.

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