Panaji : A delegation of Chimbel Villagers requested the Chief Minister Pramod Sawant 30-odd to protect Tree ax facing ombudsmanThe Order of the Disqualified Carmelites also claimed property on the site, as did the priests of the Old Age Home of the Kingdom.
Controversy erupted over a tender issued by the Institute for Public Assistance (IPA) – known as Provadoria – to cut trees for a new old age home in Chimbel. IPA has been running the facility for several decades.
But villagers, including members of the Chimbel Manch, objected to the felling of trees at the recently notified heritage site.
The villagers also staged a peaceful sit-in outside the old age home on Sunday demanding the restoration of the old building.
On Wednesday, villagers met district panchayat member Girish Uskaikar and the Carmelite priests of Margao, Sylvester D’Souza and Father Ronaldo D’Souza, and discussed the matter with Sawant.
The priests told Sawant that the Chimbel estate originally belonged to the Carmelites, but after the Portuguese suppressed all religious orders in Goa in 1835, the property was handed over to Santa Casa da Misericordia, a charitable organization, in 1841. Women belonging to two other institutions were shifted to the convent.
In 1949, the property was given to Provedoria, which, after Liberation, built a new old age home in the 1980s.
The priests submitted a petition to return the site to the Carmelites along with archival evidence, excerpts from scholarly books that it belonged to them.
A villager said, “The CM patiently listened to us and promised to look into the matter.”
Controversy erupted over a tender issued by the Institute for Public Assistance (IPA) – known as Provadoria – to cut trees for a new old age home in Chimbel. IPA has been running the facility for several decades.
But villagers, including members of the Chimbel Manch, objected to the felling of trees at the recently notified heritage site.
The villagers also staged a peaceful sit-in outside the old age home on Sunday demanding the restoration of the old building.
On Wednesday, villagers met district panchayat member Girish Uskaikar and the Carmelite priests of Margao, Sylvester D’Souza and Father Ronaldo D’Souza, and discussed the matter with Sawant.
The priests told Sawant that the Chimbel estate originally belonged to the Carmelites, but after the Portuguese suppressed all religious orders in Goa in 1835, the property was handed over to Santa Casa da Misericordia, a charitable organization, in 1841. Women belonging to two other institutions were shifted to the convent.
In 1949, the property was given to Provedoria, which, after Liberation, built a new old age home in the 1980s.
The priests submitted a petition to return the site to the Carmelites along with archival evidence, excerpts from scholarly books that it belonged to them.
A villager said, “The CM patiently listened to us and promised to look into the matter.”
.