Team Herald
MAPUSA: The Anjuna Caisua gram sabha on Sunday was adjourned following strong objection by the villagers to the presence of police at the meeting.
As soon as the minutes of the previous meeting was read out, the villagers raised the issue of load shedding. The villagers claimed as more and more electric connections are being released in the village, people are facing power problem.
The villagers said that more residential and commercial flats have come up in the village and they are using power throughout the day due to which, the village is facing load shading.
Therefore, the people demanded the gram sabha a pass resolution prohibiting the panchayat from issuing NOC for more electricity connections.
However, the Sarpanch Savio Almeida said that the panchayat cannot just stop issuing NOC for electric connections. He also informed that a new sub-station is planned for Anjuna Caisua and foundation stone for the same would be laid in January and the new sub-station would solve load shedding.
But the villagers insisted that the gram sabha a pass resolution prohibiting the panchayat from issuing NOC for more electricity connections. “The sub-station will take time to come up and till then the panchayat should not issue NOC for new electricity connection in the village,” the villagers argued.
As the sarpanch refused to allow the gram sabha to adopt a resolution on the same, the villager came forward and raised his voice and banged on the table.
Following this aggressive behaviour, the sarpanch called in the police who were stationed outside the panchayat hall and directed them to take the villager out. Police then entered the meeting room to take him outside. Angered at this, the villagers came forward and questioned the sarpanch why the police were stationed outside the meeting hall. As the questioning became confrontation, the situation turned chaotic.
Meanwhile, Panch Sheetal Dabholkar also questioned the police as to why they were present for the gram sabha. Therefore, to calm the situation, the police moved out of meeting halls.
But this did not pacify the anger of the villagers who continued to confront the sarpanch. Following this, the police had to again intervene bring order to chaos.
Seeing the situation getting more chaotic, as the crowd would not relent, Sarpanch Savio Almeida adjourned the meeting and walked out of the hall. He was followed some panchas and the panchayat secretary.
