MARGAO: Villagers of Benaulim on Sunday alleged that the Village Biodiversity Committee formed by the panchayat failed to take up the important issues, despite witnessing the incidents of destruction to the environment, and hence they have demanded to dissolve the committee immediately.
Benaulim panchayat held yet another gram sabha on Sunday, after the marathon discussion on Western Bypass project and on the issue of laying pipeline for the treated sewage water from Colva sewage treatment plant.
Villagers gathered in large numbers demanded to dissolve the Village Biodiversity Committee, headed by the Deputy Sarpanch Nilesh Prabhudesai. It was brought to the notice of the villagers that only two meetings have been conducted since its formation of the committee in 2018. Villagers expressed anger over the committee for not showing any sensitivity towards the destruction of the environment in Benaulim.
The biodiversity committee failed to have a single meeting, despite knowing the facts that there exist environmental issues in the Village.
Sunday’s gram sabha commenced at around 10 am, and it was later adjourned. The issue pertaining to the annual budget was supposed to be discussed at the meeting, but failed to pass the budget due to other issues raised by the villagers.
Several villagers took strong objections to the minutes for not recording the topics discussed at the meeting held on April 24. They also demanded an inquiry by the Block Level Officer and Panchayat Department into the matters pertaining to the budget. They were surprised to know that the resolutions moved by the villagers were not recorded in the minutes of the last gram sabha meeting.
“There are no records in the minutes of the last meeting pertaining to the proposals moved by the villagers. The panchayat needs to file a complaint with regard to missing documents,” said ex-sarpanch Royla Fernandes.
She further said the village biodiversity committee till date conducted only two meetings, and not a single meeting has been held since 2018, and hence the villagers resolved to dissolve the committee.
“We are forced to approach the court due to the failure of the biodiversity committee,” alleged Fernandes.
The issue of installing CCTV cameras was also raised in the meeting, upon which the panchayat said that they had commenced the e-tendering process. However, the panchayat body failed to provide details of the proposal to the villagers gathered at the meeting.
