The Curtorim Assembly constituency comprises of five villages: Curtorim, Raia, Rachol, San Jose de Areal also known as Nessai and Macasana.

CURTORIM
Curtorim is known as the “granary of Salcete” and it is because of this characteristic that the village has got its name, which originally was KUDD+TARI or KUDD+TODDI, merely because the village has plenty of fields and the kudds or rooms to store the grain were constructed along the river bank (toddir).

The Curtorim Church was erected in 1597 and is amongst the oldest churches in Salcete. This church is situated on the banks of Angddi tollem giving the impression that this church was structured on the pattern of Hindu temples, which are constructed on the banks of a tank. The church was rebuilt in 1647 and St. Alex was declared the titular Saint of the Church by an Apostolic Brief on 13th January 1815.

Although the patron of this village is St. Alex, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is celebrated with more fervour by the villagers on 18th December. This feast is also known as ‘Feast of O’ as in earlier times when the services were in Latin, every prayer from 18th December till 25th December, would begin with the Latin alphabet ‘O’. Besides, this feast is also known as kelleam fest (Feast of bananas). This is because in ancient times, a lot of bananas would be traded at the fair for this feast.

As per the 2001 Census the village of Curtorim admeasuring 1,736 hectares had 2,576 households with a total population of 11,187. However as the Church Census in 2006, there are 13,400 Catholics in the village and their spiritual needs are looked after by Parish Priest Fr. Livio de Melo, Assistant to the Parish Priest Fr. Mariano Dias and the Chaplain Fr. Anthony Rodrigues attached to the Chapel of Our Lady of Carmel. There are two other big chapels in the Village – Chapel of St. Sebastiao at Virabhatt and Chapel of Our Lady of Miracles at Monte.

An unique feature of Curtorim is the various water bodies. The village has five big lakes and 16 small ponds.

The Village of Curtorim is administered by a 11-member panchayat with Mr. Alcino D’Silva as the Sarpanch and Mrs. Winnie Fernandes as the Deputy Sarpanch. The panchayat members are: Mr. Joao Martins, Mr. Conceicao Dias, Mr. Charles Barreto, Mr. Neelam Korgaonkar, Mr. Milagres Rodrigues, Mrs. Veena Lourenco, Mrs. Rosemary Azavedo, Mrs. Etelvina Albuquerque and Mr. Roque D’Costa.

Although Maina is part of the Village panchayat of Curtorim and is represented by Mr. Neelam Korgaonkar, Mrs. Etelvina Albuquerque and Mr. Charles Barreto, for the Church it is a separate parish. Originally there was a chapel at Maina, which was built in 1782, this was created into a parish in 1960 and the new church was built in 1999 and is dedicated to St. Rita of Cassia.

Incidentally, according to Fr. Moreno de Souza s.j., originally this ward was called MAIONN meaning swampland.

The 5,200 catholics in the village constitute the parish of Maina which is looked after by the Parish Priest Fr. Gualberto Pereira and Priest on Staff Fr. Benjamin Sacrafamilia.

RAIA
According to Jesuit historian Fr. Moreno de Souza, this village got its name from one of the kings reigning over it in the pre-Portuguese era. Agni Mukha Ray ruled this village and that is why the name Raia which is the plural of Rai (King).

This village admeasuring 1498 hectares lies along the Margao-Ponda State Highway. As per the 2001 Census, it had 1939 households and a total population of 8,837. However, as per the Church Census of 2006, the total Catholic population of this village is 13,000.

The foundation stone of the Church of Raia was laid in 1668 but the venue was later changed and in 1699 the Church of Raia was established with Our Lady of Snows as its Patron. The Communidades of Raia and Camurlim helped financially to erect the church. The church and the parochial house underwent extensive renovation in 2003.

At present the spiritual needs of the Catholic population of this village are looked after by Parish Priest Fr. Cipriano da Silva, Assistant to the Parish Priest Fr. Leenoy Dias, Priest at Home Fr. Jose Filip Quadros and Priest in Residence Fr. Elias D’Souza. Besides the main Church Raia has the Chapel of Our Lady of Monserrate at Manora, which has Fr. Andrew Mascarenhas as the Chaplain. The chapels of Our Lady of Remedios at Curca, St. Cajetan at Arlem, St. Anne at Solva, St. Sebastian at Bacbatta, Our Lady of Livrament at Arlem and St. Anthony Chapel at Barebhatt do not have resident priests.

Raia is noted for the first parish in Salcete to celebrate the Harvest Feast or Konsachem Fest which is observed on 5th August which is also the feast of the Patron Our Lady of Snows. The Parish Priest ceremoniously harvest the paddy crop on this day and then a sheaf of the harvest is distributed amongst the faithful who keep it on the altar at their houses.

The Village of Raia is administered by a 11-member panchayat with Mr. Savio Gomes as the Sarpanch and Mr. Inacio Pinheiro as the Deputy Sarpanch. The pancha members are: Mr. Nazareth Gomes, Mr. Rumaldo Gonsalves, Mrs. Flory Monteiro, Mr. Judas Quadros, Mrs. Jessica Fernandes, Mr. Menino Fernandes, Mrs. Conceicao Ferrao and Mrs. Esmerinda Gomes.

Raia has given some prominent people to the State of Goa. These include former Union Minister of State and presently Commissioner for NRIs Eduardo Faleiro, current Power Minister Aleixo Sequiera, former MLA Antonio Gauncar, first tiatrist Padmashree M. Boyer, amongst others.

RACHOL
According to Fr. Moreno de Souza, s.j., the original name of this village was Raitur, meaning domain of Kings and that is probably the reason why it had a fort that was gifted to the Portuguese in 1520 by King Krishnadeva of Vijayanagar.

History records that Christianity was first established in this Village, which then, was merely a ward of Raia village. By 1521, a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist existed in the fort and the first church erected with mud walls and a thatched roof was set up here in 1556. Twenty years later in 1576, a proper structure of stones was built to serve as the church. The present church building was erected in 1596. The patron of Rachol church is Our Lady of Snows.

Every First Friday of the month, a special devotion is held for Jesus Christ where the “miraculous” image of Christ is venerated. This image is kept in a special tabernacle on the fourth altar of the church and special arrangements are made to ensure that the devotion does not disturb the Eucharistic services held in the church. The miracle attributed to this image is that centuries ago, when the village of Raia was facing drought, there was rainfall due to the fervent prayers of the faithful to this image. It is said that this image was taken out in a ceremonial procession from Rachol to Raia church and the moment the procession entered the Raia church, the heavens opened to shower the much needed rains. That is the reason why this image is venerated till date. Incidentally, on the 7th Passion Sunday, this image is mounted on the cross, but after lowering it, it is not taken out in the procession, where another image of Christ is used.

Close to the church is the college established by the Jesuits. The foundation stone of this college was laid in 1606 and the college was officially inaugurated on 1st November 1610 with a solemn mass. Initially, the college was called All Saints College. However, in 1622 after the founder of Jesuits Ignatius Loyola was canonized, the college was re-christened as St. Ignatius College. Some legendary Jesuits served as Rectors of this College, these include Fr. Rudolf Aquaviva, one of the martyrs of Cuncolim and Fr. Thomas Stephens who wrote the Konkani grammar and also prepared catechism in Konkani.

The “tunnel” is the highlight of this college, which is presently a seminary for those studying priesthood at the Goa Diocese. Actually, rainwater harvesting was done centuries ago in this college, which has a huge tank. The access water from the tank was channelised to the river through an underground canal which has now become a “tunnel”.
According to 2001 Census, this village admeasuring 272 hectares, has 336 households and has a total population of 1,712. However, as per the Church Census of 2006, there are 3,880 Catholics in the village. The spiritual needs of the Catholics in Rachol are catered to by Parish Priest Fr. Angelo Bonamis and Priest at Home Fr. Antonio Gomes, besides, there is a Chaplain Fr. Orlando Luis at the Chapel of Our Lady of Gloria at Ilha de Rachol.

The village of Rachol is administered by a five-member panchayat with Mr. Joseph P F Vaz as the Sarpanch and Mrs. Minguelina Oliveira as the Deputy Sarpanch. The panchayat members are: Mr. Milagres Fernandes, Mrs. Cynthia Fernandes and Mr. Guilherme Oliveira.

SAN JOSE DE AREAL
There are no records about how this village got its name. However, it can be safely assumed that since the Patron of the village church is St. Joseph, husband of Blessed Mother Mary who gave birth to the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the village derived its name from him.

The main characteristic of this village is that it has an Industrial Estate of the Goa Industrial Development Corporation. This industrial estate was set up in two phases and in all occupies 3,00,031 square metres within which there are 140 industrial units of which only 99 are operating. While 10 units are on the verge of starting, 31 are closed. This industrial estate appears to be favoured by packaging units as it has quite a number of them, prominent of which are Borkar Packaging, C R Packaging, Eskay Packaging. Other units include Aakash Manufacturing providing ready mix concrete, Macdrout Engineering manufacturing airplane parts and Rivon Engineering preparing diamond-cutting tools.

Goa Carbon Limited of the Dempo Group of Companies is also situated in this village. But this unit is not within the Industrial Estate.

The other major industry of San Jose de Areal has been extraction of black metal and crushing it. However, in recent times, this has come to a grinding halt as many of these units were found to be illegal. A fall out of this activity has been that some of the hillocks in the village have disappeared and people had to face dust and noise pollution.
San Jose de Areal is the only village in Curtorim Assembly constituency to have a Railway Station where only the local Vasco-da-Gama to Collem and vice versa trains halt.

That this is a new village is evident from the fact that most of the land in the village belongs to the Communidade of Curtorim, a neighbouring village. Besides, although it has an Industrial Estate, the same is called Margao Industrial Estate and not San Jose de Areal Industrial Estate, as is the norm in other industrial estates in the State.

The Church of St. Joseph at San Jose de Areal was established on 26th September 1826. This village, according to the Church Census of 2006, it has 5,650 Catholics and as per the 2001 Census, the total population of this village is 8,351. Besides, the church, the village also has the St. Xavier’s chapel along the State Highway from Margao to Quepem. Sisters of Little Flower of Bethany manage the Bethany Convent High School in the village.

While Fr. Eucaristinho Gomes is the Parish Priest here, Fr. Clifton Fernandes is the Assistant to the Parish Priest and Fr. Macedonio da Costa is the Priest on the Staff.

The village is administered by a 11-member Panchayat headed by Mrs. Liberia N. Travasso e Noronha as the Sarpanch and Mr. Jose Pereira Canoita Fernandes as the Deputy Sarpanch. The panchayat members are: Mrs. Thelma Dias, Mr. Alcandro Pascoal Mascarenhas, Mr. Jose Luis Pereira, Mrs. Martha E. Parab, Mr. Luis Cardoso, Mr. Vinnay Domingos Mascarenhas, Mr. Valente Gonsalo Fernandes, Mr. Agostinho Simao Andro, Mrs. Martha Daniel Domingo Gomes and Mr. Domingo Custodio Mascarenhas.

Although currently a part of the Curtorim Assembly constituency, this village will form a part of the Velim Assembly constituency at the next Assembly elections.

MACASANA
This village is a ‘big khazan’ and that is how it got its name (Maha+khazan). This is primarily an agrarian village with vast paddy fields.

Originally the chapel of Macasana was founded in 1651and it was affiliated to the Church of Curtorim. N 1739, this chapel was ransacked by the Marathas. Macasana was designated into a parish by a Provision of 12th August 1809 and the church dedicated to St. Francis Xavier was erected.

As per the 2001 Census, with an area of 500 hectares, Macasana had 477 households and a population of 2,302. However, as per the Church Census of 2006, the Catholic population of this village is 3,500 and their spiritual needs are looked after by Parish Priest Mr. Lauzerio Godinho.

The Village of Macasana is administered by a seven-member Panchayat with Mr. Mariano D’Costa as the Sarpanch and Mrs. Sushma Almeida as the Deputy Sarpanch. The panchayat members are: Mr. Romy Quadros, Mr. Agnelo D’Costa, Mr. Joaquim Baretto, Mrs. Conceicao D’Costa and Mr. Richard Gracias.