When it comes to the Carmona Panchayat, the R word cannot be far behind – R for Raheja. Much of the discourse and rivalries in the village have centred around support or opposition to the Raheja housing project in the village and the newly elected Carmona Panchayat is being closely watched to see which way their decision making goes viz a viz the Rahejas.
Carmona incidentally was the only panchayat that did not back MLA Churchill Alemao in the panchayat elections and was perceived to be an Aam Aadmi Party panel as most of the elected members had the backing of Carmona Welfare Forum that was supporting AAP at the assembly elections.
In fact Sarpanch Winston Dias refused to comment on the Raheja issue saying that the matter was sub-judice. Allwyn Caeiro, who is a panchayat member now, was initially spearheading the battle against Rahejas and following his election to the panchayat, people expected some stringent action against the builder.
Mrs Bona D’Silva, a leading member of Carmona Welfare Forum, admitted that more is expected from the panchayat on the Raheja issue but could not offer any reason for this slow approach to dealing with the matter that had grabbed eyeballs all over the State.
The Town & Country Planning Department had issued a licence to Rahejas for their project even though they did not have access of the specified dimension and subsequently the government brought in an amendment which, according to a vast section of villagers, effectively allowed the bottlenecks in road access, which helped the builder.
While people alleged that the amendment was brought to help the builder, the panchayat issued them a construction licence based on the TCP permission which angered the people who wanted the licence to be revoked.
Soon after the elections, people expected Allwyn Caeiro to be the Sarpanch and in fact he was asked to take over the reins of the panchayat. “However, he was of the opinion that only the elected panchas should decide who the Sarpanch should be without any interference from any outside source,” disclosed Bona adding that even the Forum wanted him to be Sarpanch.
Caeiro refused to comment on this matter except stating that he had his own reasons for not becoming the Sarpanch.
However, on other fronts, the panchayat body has started work in right earnest. They have trimmed the trees and bushes by the roadside that were causing power outrages and the power supply situation in the village has improved tremendously since then.
The panchayat has also started dry waste collection from households. People are advised to keep their dry waste at a particular place in the ward on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of the month and two panchayat employees go in a pickup that is hired for the purpose and collect the garbage which is then disposed off through the Solid Waste Management Cell.
The Zalor beach that attracts many visitors is relatively clean as it is not very crowded and has only about three shacks. However, the owner of the property next to the beach which is used by picnickers collects money from the visitors but does not keep the place very clean.
“I am not aware of this and will definitely look into this matter,” said Sarpanch Winston when asked about it.
He also revealed that the village will shortly get a football ground as the file pertaining to that has been cleared but was held up because the Assembly Session was on.
According to Emeliana Rodrigues, who had contested the panchayat elections some time back, the present panchayat has brought peace and tranquility to the village.
