MARGAO: Even as former minister Francisco Xavier alias Mickky Pacheco suggested that the large number of government servants who are sitting idle at home be used to distribute essential commodities to the people at large instead of resorting to the volunteer service, Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro has already identified the volunteers in each of the five villages of his constituency.
Mickky pointed out that Bharatiya Janata Party members had threatened sarpanchas and panchas that development in their villages would be blocked, if they did not support the candidates supported by the BJP at the cancelled Zilla panchayat elections.
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He said the 2,500 volunteers proposed to be appointed will be nothing but agents of the ruling BJP and people who will canvass for the party candidates at elections to be held in the future and asserted that the BJP rules only on threats as there has been no development of whatsoever kind for the last three years.
“Instead of appointing volunteers the government could deploy its nearly 50,000 workers in the around 70 departments who are drawing hefty salaries right now by just sitting at home,” he said admitting that he has deliberately kept out the staff of home and health department as they are at the forefront of the battle against Corona virus.
He pointed out that during elections the government uses the Booth Level Officer to contact the voters and said similarly the government servants could be used during these trying times to carry out the government work which is more important than letting them just sit at home.
Cruz Fernandes a social activist from Benaulim has supported the views expressed by Mickey and alleged that the panchayat members may not supply essentials to people who had opposed their candidature.
In fact Cruz has been appointed as a volunteer in ward No. 11 of Benaulim as the panchayat member Nilesh Prabhudessai who does not live in the village, refused to be a volunteer. Cruz will distribute rice dal, soups and oil to people in his ward at 6 pm.
LUIZINHO BACKS VOLUNTEERS: Interestingly, MLA Luizinho Faleiro has started working under the government scheme by appointing volunteers and making arrangements for essential commodities to be supplied to the houses of the residents in the five villages in his constituency.
Besides appointing 20 volunteers in each of the villages, all the panchayat members including the sarpanch are also enrolled as volunteers and everybody has been given the volunteer passes issues by the Collector.
Besides, Luizinho said the distributors of commodities in each of the five villages have been identified and appealed to others willing to distribute goods to people to apply for the same before the Collector.
He expressed happiness that the community farming experiment started by him in Davorlim has proved to be successful specially during these trying times as the farmers have been distributing the local vegetables grown by them to the people in Salcete.
He also appealed to people to stay at home and stay safe said he was trying to get a truck to provide vegetables to all as required.
