TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Setting at rest speculations doing the rounds in Salcete countryside over the government move to include villages bordering Margao into the South Goa Planning and Development Authority, Deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza on Thursday firmly denied any government plan to bring in more villages in the SGPDA or to form a Corporation.
During his visit to the South Goa district Collectorate on Thursday, D’Souza, who also holds the portfolio of Town and Country Planning and Urban Development, told Herald that nothing has moved from his TCP department till date. “Neither the Chief Town Planner nor the SGPDA Member Secretary has intimated me of any move to include Salcete village into the SGPDA,” D’Souza said, while firmly ruling out any such proposal.
When his attention was drawn to an official note in circulation in Salcete since last week stating government’s move to bring the village under the PDA, D’Souza said neither the government has mooted any such proposal nor any MLA or local bodies. “I am certain that neither the MLAs nor the Panchayats have made any proposal to the government. Hence, there cannot be any move to include villages in the jurisdiction of the PDA or the Margao Municipality,” D’Souza asserted.
Herald had last week reported about a purported official note bearing the stamp of office of Salcete Mamlatdar in circulation which speaks about the merger of villages bordering Margao into the SGPDA for planning purpose. However, both the Salcete Mamlatdar Vishal Kundaikar and SGPDA Member Secretary Vinod Kumar have firmly denied any move in that direction.
