MARGAO: The Aquem Baixo gram sabha on Sunday discussed issues pertaining to the village like garbage management, place for traditional vegetable growers to sell their ware and open defecation by tenants.
It is pertinent that all the foregoing issues were discussed under Any Other Business which the Sarpanch Siddesh Bhagat permitted.
It may be recalled that the Director of Panchayats had directed that Any Other Business should not be allowed at gram sabhas as the business to be conducted at these meetings is clearly mentioned in Section 6 of the Act.
However, Siddesh argued that there would be no purpose in holding a gram sabha if any other business is not allowed. “For example, today not a single villager gave any proposal to be discussed at the gram sabha and the meeting would have been over after transacting the official business,” he said.
Acknowledging that migrant vendors are slowly displacing the traditional and local vendors, it was decided to visit the place near Rawanfond bridge on December 4 to identify a place where the traditional vegetable vendors could sell their produce.
“There is no doubt that the place used by the traditional vendors presently to sell local vegetables is very dangerous and there is every possibility of accidents occurring there,” the sarpanch said, expressing his willingness to inspect the site along with the vendors at a time suitable to them.
The sarpanch disclosed that the deputy collector, principal chief engineer of PWD and even the local MLA had not replied to the panchayat’s letter regarding the nuisance caused by illegal hawkers at the Rawanfond bridge and said he would write another letter giving them one month’s time failing which he asked the villagers to unite to take their own action.
“The tragedy is that government officials be they PWD, Electricity Department or water supply, nobody responds to any letter written to them,” he said much to the irritation of the people.
As a villager pointed out that at Firgulem around 40 tenants were housed in a property where there was only one toilet for them due to which they defecate in the open. Following this, the sarpanch directed the Secretary to immediately issue a notice to the owner of the land and also write to the Health Department to inspect the place.
The non-use of the rickshaw donated by the previous MLA Avertano Furtado that has now become dilapidated and not worth repairing was extensively discussed with former sarpanch Inacio Dias pressing the issue.
Siddesh pointed out that financially it was cheaper to hire a rickshaw at the rate of Rs 4000 per month rather than repairing the rickshaw at high cost and then appointing a driver at a fixed salary to use the rickshaw and the villagers supported this view.
Lack of garbage management in the village was also discussed with the sarpanch disclosing that the higher authorities were not in favour of community bins in villages and further said their village is handicapped as there is no land acquired by the government for any purpose there.
He said along with the neighbouring panchayats they have proposed to set up a place for not only segregating garbage but also composting the wet garbage that is collected and lamented that people prefer to dump the garbage by the roadside in the village.
The gram sabha amended the budget to permit the panchayat to purchase a photocopying machine and give grants of Rs 3000 to 10 self help groups in the village and also permit the panchayat to spend Rs 50,000 for training self help group members or children.
The projects listed out under the Gram Panchayat Development Plan were also read out and approved and mostly consisted of construction or repairs of drains, de-silting ponds, construction of retaining walls or roads, erecting signboards and development of open spaces.
