Team Herald
MARGAO: Carmona villagers agreed to a revision of their house tax and also accepted garbage collection tax as proposed by the panchayat at the gram sabha held on Sunday where it was also decided to survey the village to identify migrants living there and issue them an identity card.
Sarpanch Allwyn Jorge who has recently taken over pointed out that the law empowers the panchayat to revise taxes by 10 per cent every three years and further pointed out that the panchayat is financially weak, suggested that the house tax be revised by 10 per cent.
Besides, he suggested that the minimum house tax to be levied will be Rs. 150 and the villagers accepted the proposal unanimously as the panchayat has also increased the waste collection to a weekly basis as against earlier system of collecting it fortnightly.
His proposal to collect garbage collection fee at the rate of Re. 1 per day from every household in the village was also accepted by the people and this collection would commence from the next financial year.
As it was pointed out that migrants living on rental basis in the village were throwing their garbage by the road side it was decided that the panchayat along with the Village Development Committee would survey the entire village ward wise and identify the migrants living on rental basis.
The migrants would be questioned on how they dispose their garbage and be made to pay the garbage collection fee and be also issued identity cards by the panchayat. Besides, the panchayat was asked to seek copies of the tenant verification forms submitted to the police by the owners of the tenanted premises.
The sarpanch lamented that their village is being discriminated by the Directorate of Panchayats that allots only Rs 2 lakh for garbage management on grounds that it is not a coastal village while neighbouring villages like Cavelossim and Varca get Rs 5 lakh as grants.
“We have already spent around Rs 1,21,794 on garbage management so far and we can expect only Rs 2 lakhs hence we need more funds to manage the garbage in the village,” he said while disclosing that the garbage fee collection will collect around Rs 1.6 lakh.
The villagers asked the sarpanch to take up the matter with the Director of Panchayats and also produce a copy of the letter written by Goa Tourism Department asking the panchayat to list out the works it wants undertaken at the Zalor beach.
The gram sabha was informed that the panchayat had decided to install CCTV cameras at places where people are dumping garbage by the road side including the panchayat community hall.
Assistant Manager of Goa Waste Management Corporation Rajat Chitari aided by a power point presentation explained how the garbage scenario has changed in the State over the last few years and also explained what material they collect from the panchayat.
It was decided to await local MLA Churchill Alemao’s reply to the issue raised by the panchayat with him over the ambulance given to them under the MPLAD scheme which is rusting and whose battery has died as it is not being used since they have no driver or nurses to manage it.
The panchayat’s decision to illuminate the football ground with LED floodlights was hailed and appreciated and the sarpanch disclosed that a tender worth Rs 1.8 crore has been floated to undertake the work of Sports Complex upgradation while Rs 8 crore has been sanctioned to develop the football ground.
The gram sabha also decided not to have a water tank and children’s park constructed in the panchayat property at Olvaddo as was decided at an earlier gram sabha and the sarpanch said that after conducting meetings in every ward the Gram Panchayat Development Plan would be submitted to the gram sabha in April this year.
