While issues regarding street lighting and new roads featured in the discussion, panchayat secretary Sushant Naik Gaunkar informed that the house tax had been raised to a minimum of Rs 25 and commercial tax to Rs 100, which had come into effect on April 1. He also informed that the panchayat had denied an NOC to erect a mobile tower in the village.
Villagers complained about their taps and house wells running dry, with the PWD failing to augment the tap water supply even though there was a pipeline network from the Chapoli Dam.
The villagers claimed that due to the Irrigation Department’s failure and the panchayat’s unpreparedness in constructing bandharas, the village was witnessing a water shortage.
The members pointed out that not a single bandhara was erected in either of the two rivers passing through the village. They claimed that the PWD was making excuses that the water level was too low to operate the pump at Mudkud.
When the villagers questioned the Irrigation Department’s failure to construct bandharas at the Saleri River in Mudkud and Agonda River, Sarpanch Navneeta Naik Gaunkar replied that since people stopped cultivating Rabi crop, not even a single private bandhara had come up anywhere on the two rivers.
The villagers also questioned if the Irrigation Department had information about the farmers’ non-cultivation, and if it was so, why the panchayat had failed to construct bandharas when these are known to increase and restore groundwater.
