As the five-year terms end, panchayats in Goa had to go through a lot of changes, especially those that lie on the periphery of towns. Sao Jose de Areal panchayat, situated 7 kms from Margao town and located in Velim constituency, has its own set of problems.
The panchayat has a large chunk of property located in the Margao Industrial Estate and comes under the jurisdiction of the IDC while a carbon factory set up in 1975 is another of its challenge. But Sao Jose de Areal’s real issue is migrants and illegal scrapyards.
“One decision that I took with my entire council of 11 panchas when we came to power in 2012 was to disallow any buildings and housing complex in the entire village because we seemed incapable of managing garbage and we have managed to keep the ban on construction of buildings in the village until we identify land for sorting garbage,” explains Julio Monteiro, who despite his disability and limping, managed to be the sarpanch for 3 out of 5 years.
Julio explains to Herald his biggest challenge in the panchayat has been the illegal scrapyards that survive on scrap from the homes in Margao and how scrap is illegally dumped near residential areas and is a menace and an eyesore for the residents.
“I wish IDC recognises land within the industrial estate and rehabilitate these scrapyards. The rusting metal left in the open is a huge contamination in our grounds,” explains Julio.
He said his council surveyed the entire village and identified 4,000 rooms and hutments on rent who were defaulting any kind of panchayat tax on tenants and hence taxing these landlords was a huge revenue boost to the panchayat.
“The biggest problem of the village is the migrants and you can see them all gathered at Ramnagri-Housing Board in the evening. From defecating in the open to throwing filth everywhere, they have been the village’s bane,” explains Loyd Dias who lives in Sao Jose de Areal.
Other panchas relate how the migrants in the village have been a huge menace and even worse most of them have not signed the Character Form and are unverified by the local police.
Sao Jose de Areal, also battles the coal dust from the Goa Carbon factory. But the factory, since 1975, hires lot of locals and hence the villagers are not keen to shut it down despite its increasing pollution dust.
“The migrants are a concern for the village. Migrants mostly come into the village as they find employment at the industrial estate but their discharge of sewage in the water bodies and of late increasing thefts and incidences of eve teasing is a major concern for the villagers,” stated Nihal Dessai,a Jose de Areal villager
The panchayat also faces difficulty in road widening because of the many religious structures along the road and the inability of the state government to come up with a policy on religious structures.
