PONDA: The sarpanchas of nine panchayats in Ponda Taluka that have been notified as urban areas are upset that they were not taken into confidence by the government before issuing the notification.
Few days ago, the Revenue Department had issued a notification declaring 56 panchayats from various Talukas as urban areas. In Ponda Taluka, the following villages have been notified as urban areas viz Bandora, Borim, Bethki Khandola, Curti, Marcaim, Tivere Orgao, Priol, Quela and Usgao. Some of the sarpanchas that Herald correspondent contacted said that they are totally in the dark over the notification declaring their respective panchayats as urban areas.
They demanded that the government take them into confidence and explain to them the advantages or disadvantages of declaring their villages as urban areas; whether their villages would be converted into municipalities or they would remain as panchayats.
Usgao Ganjem Deputy Sarpanch Ramnath Dangui said, “We are totally in the dark over the declaration of our village as urban area. We didn’t receive any communiqué from government on the issue.”
Opining that before making such declaration, the government should have taken the panchayats and villagers into confidence, he said, “The government cannot issue such declaration in an autocratic manner. We are a democracy.”
He said that except for a very small part of Usgao, most of the village is rural an area and the people there are living in poverty.
“I don’t know how we will reply to gram sabha on this issue as we have no idea about the declaration,” he said. He feared that if his village is converted into municipality, then, TCP Act would be applicable.
“Then, there will be change in tax structure and people cannot afford it as majority of them fall under low income group,” he explained.
Bandora Sarpanch Ramchandra Naik, too, said that he is totally in the dark over issue. He also opined that the government should explain in detail about advantages or disadvantages of declaring his village as urban area. “I am worried about answering the questions that would be raised by villagers during the gram sabha, as we have no knowledge on issue,” he said.
Quela Sarpanch Rajesh Kavlekar said that he read about the declaration in newspapers. “I cannot comment on the subjects, as I don’t know the details of the notification. We are thinking of placing the issue before the villagers by convening a special gram sabha,” he said.
A Kavlem villager Nilesh Naik said that before declaring the villages as urban areas, government should resolve the various problems faced by villagers. “Many of the villagers are poor; they cannot even repair their houses. If such villages are converted into urban areas, they would face difficulties in paying higher taxes,” he said.
