The issue was raised after a proposal was moved by Lupino Xavier, a resident of Quelossim, who accused the panchayat of going soft against the promoter of the project.
Sarpanch Illario Figueiredo said the dismantling of a pontoon in the water body was undertaken by the GCZMA and that the panchayat was not informed.
Figueiredo also informed that the panchayat could not initiate action since the promoter had filed a suit in the Director of Panchayats. The members, including Devendra Kenkre, Mariano Dias told the sarpanch that nothing stopped the panchayat from initiating action since no stay was granted. The members also did not accept the contention of the sarpanch that the land filing was done by GAIL, since the land filling was illegal and there were no permissions. Later, a resolution was passed to file a suit for get rid of the land filling.
The gram sabha also opposed the proposed zilla panchayat elections on party lines. The sarpanch’s contention that the issue did not belong to the panchayat was rejected by the members who said that panchayats were self-governing bodies and it did not call for political party involvement in the village decision making.
Mariano Dias reminded that the people were supreme and gave an example where the Calangute panchayat had shown its guts by functioning independently and even disregarding the local MLA and the government when it came to safeguarding peoples’ interest.
On the issue of bifurcation of Quelossim, Lupino demanded that the panchayat take up the issue with the government and the local MLA to grant them separate panchayat since all the legal formalities were complete.
