Team Herald
MOIRA: Issues related to garbage tax, signboards, better policing, guesthouse nuisance and tenant verification dominated Sunday’s Moira gram sabha, which was attended by a handful of villagers.
Four from the seven panchas were present for the meeting, which commenced with the panchayat secretary Smita Shetye Parab reading the minutes of the last gram sabha.
The locals demanded that the Aldona Police Outpost be upgraded or the village be brought under the Mapusa Police Station jurisdiction. To this, the panchayat decided to write to the police to upgrade the Aldona Outpost into a full-fledged police station or bring the village under the jurisdiction of Mapusa police station.
Social activist Florence Mendes said the village comes under the jurisdiction of Aldona Outpost, which is situated far away and there is no proper transport facilities. “Many complaints from the locals are not even attended to. I would like to move a proposal that either the Aldona outpost be upgraded to a police station or the village be brought under the jurisdiction of Mapusa Police Station, which is much more accessible,” Mendes added.
Another local Agnelo Mendonca supported the proposal and recalled that a drone camera was flying over the village on Thursday at 8.45 which could pose a threat.
“This camera was flying and taking pictures. It can be dangerous on security grounds and hence I dialled 100 six times but there was no response. I called the Mapusa police but they gave me the Aldona outpost number. They informed that the concerned authority will be informed and after 20 minutes they said that they would arrive,” said Mendonca.
Following discussion on the said topic, it was resolved to write to the DGP and North Goa SP with regards to the police control number 100 not responding.
During the meeting it was discussed that the annual garbage tax would be implemented from April 1 onwards and the tenant verification data collection would be completed by mid-year.
A local raised concern over the problem faced by her due to the operation of a guesthouse allegedly belonging to a noted Indian journalist. She said that there was recently a shooting held at the site where many cars were parked along the road causing inconvenience to the commuters. It was noticed that food was cooked along the roadside and she sought action in the matter. Deputy sarpanch Oswald Cordeiro informed that the panchayat would issue a show cause notice in this regard. The panchayat decided not to issue any certificates until the owners paid house tax.
