MARGAO: The Colva gram sabha on Sunday instructed the panchayat continue to stop the work on treatment plant being undertaken by the Sewerage and Infrastructural Development Corporation of Goa Ltd, as the same has no mandatory permissions. The gram sabha also asked the panchayat to seek legal opinion on revoking the licence issued to the Corporation earlier.
Sarpanch Antonio Leao Fernandes read out the reply given by the Corporation to the second stop work order issued by the panchayat wherein it was stated that the work of constructing a sewerage treatment plant in Colva was undertaken following a high court order.
The reply further stated that withdrawing the NOC issued by the Panchayat at this stage would amount to contempt of court. The villagers said that the contempt of court was merely a threat as no court would direct anything illegal to be undertaken.
“Even if the work is ordered by the Court, the necessary permissions and licenses have to be taken and the Corporation has not got the land converted as there is no conversion sanad nor has it got the technical sanction from the Town and Country Planning Department,” said Thomas Rodrigues a villager.
Shakuntala Mesquita who had raised the issue while cautioning that the 7.5 MLD sewerage treatment plant was being built to cater to other coastal villages too, pointed out that even the panchayat NOC dated March 9, 2015 clearly stated that work could start only after all necessary permissions and licenses are obtained.
Besides, it was pointed out that the corporation in its application had asked the panchayat to place the matter before the gram sabha and take its approval, which the villagers said was not done and hence sufficient ground to revoke the NOC.
However, when the sarpanch kept referring to it being a state government project, the gram sabha directed him to seek a legal opinion to see if the NOC issued in 2015 could be revoked and inform the gram sabha about the legal advice.
The sarpanch assured the villagers that door-to-door garbage collection would commence from August 1 as the panchayat was collecting data about garbage generated in the village. He said the contractor will be paid Rs 60 thousand per month to collect garbage from households as well as from the road side.
The villagers demanded that the owners of the handcarts and fast food joints be levied extra fees as they generate a lot of garbage and where it is disposed is not known. When it was revealed that only few people give their household garbage, it was suggested that the panchayat members monitor the garbage collection and those not giving their garbage be penalised.
