Team Herald
MARGAO: The issue of rampant drug use featured prominently at the Sarzora gram sabha, where the sarpanch also criticised Velim MLA Benjamin Silva for stalling development works.
At the meeting, which lasted a little over thirty minutes, gram sabha members complained that an increasing number of youth were consuming drugs at various locations, including near the lake.
Villages across Salcete had awoken to the drug menace in April, when two youth died after consuming drugs at a party in Curtorim. The incident sent shockwaves across the taluka and led to demands for curbing the drug consumption.
Sarpanch Jacinto Fernandes later criticized MLA Silva for stalling development projects in Sarzora and for constructing a road to the lake despite the panchayat’s objections.
When asked why the repair works of the internal roads had not been completed, Fernandes stated that the panchayat would write to the Public Works Department (PWD) apprising them about the same.
The gram sabha members initially resolved to write to the electricity department requesting that the electricity poles located in fields be shifted to the roadside. As NOCs for shifting the poles had already been given to the residents, it was resolved to seek help from the government to move the poles.
