The gram sabha members moved a resolution criticising the heavy presence of traffic police at five places in the tourist village.
Sarpanch Menino Fernandes, panch Calvert Gonsalves and gram sabha member Eulogio Gomes lamented that the presence of the traffic police has become harassment to tourists and the villagers.
Calvert added that many establishments in the tourist village have reported a fall in business because of the harassment caused by the tourist police.
The sarpanch rued the fact that traffic police can only be seen in Colva village and informed the gram sabha that the panchayat has written to the traffic higher-ups to fix a meeting on the issue.
The gram sabha members felt that if the harassment of traffic police continued and given that it was already causing a hindrance in the village instead of regulating traffic, the room allocated to the traffic police should be withdrawn, immediately.
Earlier, the gram sabha discussed the instruction received by the panchayat wherein the local body was asked to re-verify the structures falling within CRZ in the village within three months.
Explaining the issue in detail, Sarpanch Fernandes said that the re-verification of the structures includes the exercise to find out whether any structure has been left out during the initial survey.
There were also discussions on the Colva Fama fair where the sarpanch informed the gram sabha that the fair days could be extended up to seven days. Gram sabha members demanded that provisions be made for traffic regulation, mobile toilets and lifting of garbage. It was decided that the panchayat would seek a deposit of Rs 5,000 from each stall on the condition that the same will be forfeited if the stall owner doesn’t manage the waste generated.
