CHANDOR: Encroachments on panchayat land, failure of Water Resources Department to provide water for agriculture and overburdening panchayat staff were some of the issues discussed at the Chandor-Cavorim gram sabha held on Sunday.
Luel Fernandes demanded to know how the panchayat was issuing NOCs for water connections and even giving construction licenses in property which is under litigation and where the courts have ordered a stay.
However, the panchayat’s defense was that the stay has been vacated and that they have only issues licenses for repairs and extensions while the construction licenses were issued long back.
Luel was specifically referring to permissions granted to Elite constructions and K K Construction which he alleged have actually encroached upon land that was supposed to be kept as open spaces and hence belonging to the panchayat.
In this connection, the panchayat was asked to ensure that henceforth all developers in the village gift the marked open spaces to the panchayat before issuing any construction license to houses in the developed plots.
As in the past, panchayats would grant construction licenses before executing the gift deeds, the builders then would make the panchayat dance to their tunes by not executing the gift deeds, the villagers pointed out.
Another simmering issue of setting up the Material Recovery Facility which was discussed at the last gram sabha, could not be discussed today as a meeting to thrash out this problem was scheduled on Monday February 26.
There was discussion on this matter as some of the people residing near the plot where the MRF is proposed to be set up argued that they were co-owners of the open space gifted by the developer and hence their NOC was also required.
Villager Jaret D’Silva while asking the panchayat to seek legal advise on whether a donor can put any clauses stating that the plot gifted to the panchayat cannot be used for certain purpose, asked the panchayat to do what is best in the interest of the village.
Responding to Malbon Cardoso’s point of constructing a road for farmers under the railway bridge, the panchayat said the railways had not permitted the work to be undertaken.
Sarpanch Estefanio Dias’ contention that the WRD engineer was regularly visiting the village to check the problem of water supply through the Paroda canal was debunked.
The panchayat was also asked to write to the PWD to install a net all along the bridge on river Kushawati to prevent people from dumping their garbage in the river.
