Panch Santan Rodrigues pointed out that the panchayat had completed all the formalities at their end and it was now pending on the PWD’s side regarding tenders and added that they had raised the issue with the PWD repetitively and recalled that the panch members had also visited the PWD office recently to complain.
Curtorim MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco who was present at the meeting was urged to take up the matter with the PWD and it was decided that the panchayat submit a memorandum to him.
Lourenco stated he would exert pressure on the government to make sure the PWD makes the pending payments to contractors and sort other issues immediately.
Rodrigues stated that the PWD only makes false claims that the works were being completed but on the ground, the works had not been taken up in the last two years.
On the issue of garbage, the gram sabha formed a monitoring committee to supervise the work of cleaning of drains.
The MLA also suggested a long-term garbage disposal solution – identifying a place in the village for segregation of garbage – while encouraging segregation of waste at source. However, a villager also called for banning of plastic in view of plastic bags used for dumping garbage, finding its way to water bodies in Curtorim and other places.
Another villager pointed out that every year Gandhi Jayanti is observed by discussing ways to resolve the garbage issue, but no headway has been made so far. While the pancahyat was criticized for garbage management, Rodrigues stated that the panchayat had done a lot of work in this direction in terms of collection of garbage and had written to the Science and Technology department and director of Panchayat asking for five collection centres in the village.
On the issue of Regional Plan the village survey report was placed before the gram sabha and the villagers sought to know from the panchayat about the approved draft Regional Plan prepared by the village where the MLA said the copy of the same could be obtained by RTI.
He further said that any suggestions to be made for changes in the Regional Plan can be routed through the panchayat in the form of gram sabha resolutions. He said that as an MLA he will forward the suggestions to the government for the changes to be effected in the plan.
Another issue that rocked the gram sabha was regarding opposition to a commercial complex in Fondegal and villagers questioned if the building had legal permissions and voiced its opposition to same. While villagers called for action to be initiated against the complex at the earliest, the panchayat stated that the matter was sub judice and called on the group opposing the project to file an intervening petition in the case.
Rodrigues also pointed out that the panchayat was in the process of collecting outstanding tax – both house and trade – which was over Rs 10 lakh.
The gram sabha decided to form a traffic management committee for road safety at its next meeting.
