TEAM HERALD
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MARGAO: Betalbatim villagers on Sunday unanimously voted for a survey of migrants and tenants putting up in the village in the wake of the incidents of assault on a SSC girl student and a woman by migrants.
At an extraordinary gram sabha meeting on Sunday, the villagers urged the Panchayat body to start the house-to-house drive to ascertain the number of migrants staying in the village and verify their antecedents.
Addressing the members, MLA Mickky Pacheco underlined the need to verify the backgrounds and antecedents of people staying in the village. “I am not against anyone. Our Goans also go out in search of jobs. But, we have to ensure that the antecedents of those coming into the village are checked and verified so that criminal elements do not take shelter here”, he said.
Pacheco made an appeal to the villagers to cooperate with the Panchayat body in completing the survey by providing the details of their tenants. While emphasizing the need to provide the tenants identity cards, the MLA said the Panchayat should also collect one month rent from the landlords as per the Panchayat Act.
Sarpanch Esperence Fernandes later told newsmen that the Panchayat would soon fix the date to start the survey of migrants in the village. “We will go house to house and check their identity. The Panchayat would also call upon the landlords to pay one month rent to the body”, she said.
Replying to a question, the Sarpanch said the Panchayat would send the resolutions adopted at the recent meeting held to condemn the attack on the village girl to the households, asking them to comply with the resolutions.
Gram sabha members made a host of suggestions to the Panchayat body, including taking affidavits from the Landlords on keeping their tenants and how to verify the antecedents of the migrants.
