MARGAO: With the Sao Jose de Areal village panchayat repeatedly denying an opportunity to the locals to address their grievances, the villagers have gotten together and carried out a signature petition campaign and a letter with their demands has been sent to the Salcete Block Development Office (BDO) demanding the intervention of the Panchayats Department, “as the panchayat is making a mockery of the gram sabha proceedings”, according to the locals.
While the villagers have met other authorities including the Velim MLA recently, they have been most upset with the manner in which the last few gram sabhas have taken place where they all adjourned by the chair without discussing any of the proposals placed before the panchayat by the local residents.
The villagers are also alarmed about the fact that the police have been called for their gram sabha meetings, following which the meetings were ended abruptly and they lamented that this is probably the first time in Goa where the police have had to intervene and also that a gram sabha does not discuss matters raised by the them.
In the memorandum that was submitted to the BDO, the locals attached copies of all prior correspondence to the government and panchayat about the issues they wanted to be addressed in the village.
They also pointed out that not only did the panchayat fail to hold a gram sabha meeting for a very long period of time, during which all other village panchayats in Goa conducted their gram sabha meetings, the panchayat had also indulged in deliberate tactics to ensure that the gram sabha meetings are repeatedly adjourned.
The villagers listed out how the Chair had abused and insulted the gram sabha members so as to instigate them as opposed to responding to queries on the topics the locals wanted the panchayat to respond to.
