Calangute panchayat is the richest in Goa

by GLENN COSTA
Posted on 2009-03-01
PANAJI - To most minds, Calangute depicts images of waving palms, beaches and blue seas. It is also synonymous with construction and development and hotels and restaurant choc-a-block lining the paved roads.
Tourism is the mainstay of this one time sleepy fishing village that shot to fame with the advent of charter tourism. After that, Calangute witnessed a meteoric development propelled by the ubiquitous but unique, rent-back hotels.
The village is blessed with the beautiful and now the famous ‘queen’ of beaches, the Calangute beach and also boasts of probably the most famous stretches in the South West Asia, the Baga stretch.
“Tourism is the main industry here,” informs long time sarpanch, Mr Joseph Sequeira. “But we have no five star hotels, but mostly 2 stars and rent backs,” he points out. There are a total of 11 wards and so 11 ward members along with one co-opted member in this semi-urban panchayat. His deputy sarpanch is Ms Ana Marie de Souza. Mr Sequeira says: “Calangute panchayat rakes in an astounding Rs 3 crore as income for the past so many years and on an average spends about Rs 2.5 crore”.
The richest panchayat in the state garners its income mostly from construction licencees and taxes.
“We use the money for constructing and upkeep of internal roads, culverts and taking care of our garbage,” says Mr Sequeira proudly pointing out, “We do not charge locals, but only hotels and commercial complexes for garbage collection. He adds, “We pay around Rs 1,96,000 per month for garbage collection.”
He says that he has plans for a sewage treatment plant for the panchayat. Though the plans are ready, the project has still not seen the light of day due to ‘extraneous’ factors.
As of 2001 census, Calangute had a population of 15,776 with males constituting 54 per cent and females, 46 per cent. Calangute also has an average literacy rate of 73 per cent.
When asked whether the demographic factors of the population have changed, given the notoriety the coastal belt has attained and the construction boom witnessed for so many years, he vehemently but guardedly denies the charges. “Demography of the population has not changed. The locals are still in control,” he says. “Outsiders come and go. They may own second houses here but are not residents and are mostly only here for holidays.”
However, locals charge that many people from outside the state have settled in the village and its adjoining village and some have even adopted Goan names and surnames. These include many migrant labourers.
Speaking about development he says that the government does not give them any grant and even the internal roads are hot mixed by panchayat.
When the Baga lane problem was brought up he defended himself by saying that the police should not allow the vehicles to park on the roadsides. He also feels that the PWD should acquire the land at the sides so it can be kept vehicle-free, widened and people stopped from putting up temporary stalls.
He also says that contrary to popular notion that the village has become concretised “about 50 per cent of Calangute is developed but it still has a lot of village land left and agriculture is undertaken.” But he says that the income is fully from tourism and ancillary activities and not from agriculture.