Team Herald
VASCO: The ordinary meeting of the Sancoale Village Panchayat on Tuesday was marred by tension and chaos with the two opposition panchas and villagers alleging corruption and mismanagement of funds by the ruling panel.
The opposition panchayat members charged that the bills amounting to Rs 40 lakh were passed without discussions and proper meetings. They also alleged garbage mismanagement and that the funds were not utilised in building a new panchayat ghar.
Deputy Sarpanch Derrick Vales refuted all the allegations by stating that they had not passed any bill and that the opposition was disrupting meetings without reasons. He claimed that the meeting was held and it deliberated the entire agenda.
However, Vales said that the disruptions by the opposition were affecting discussion of several important files related to house tax, construction licences, and other local matters. He alleged that the opposition panchayat members’ sole agenda was to make baseless allegations, bring villagers and disrupt the meeting.
“When we don’t react, they resort to snatching documents and office files and create a ruckus in a bid to adjourn the meeting. The opposition members are frustrated about not being in power,” Vales said.
Vales claimed that all bills were properly included in the agenda and cleared following due procedures.
He disclosed that the village panchayat had now given the garbage collection to the Paradeep Phosphate Limited, thereby reducing the additional costs. The company will start collecting garbage in the village from April 1 this year.
Referring to the payment of fees to the lawyer, Vales said that a small amount was paid to the lawyer while all his bills have been forwarded to the Director of Panchayats, for approval.
Opposition panchayat member Tulshidas Naik alleged that the gram sevak Orville C Vales was “illegally” officiating as panchayat secretary for the last two years. He sent a meeting notice with an agenda of 19 pages. He pointed out that the last meeting held on December 4, 2024 was wound up by the ruling group within a few minutes and they even filed a police complaint against him for allegedly damaging a book.
According to Naik, the ruling members and the gram sevak deliberately prevented him from accessing the minutes book of the previous meeting.
“When I insisted on reading the minutes and signing my presence for today’s meeting, the Deputy Sarpanch refused to give me the book. However, the same book was handed over to another panch who arrived late. When I persisted, they abruptly ended the meeting, even though it was never conducted properly,” he said.
He also accused the ruling panel of mobilising crowds from Zuarinagar to create disturbances and intimidate them.
According to Naik, as per the 2011 Census, the Sancoale village has 21,000 population, out of which 16,000 are migrants. Former sarpanch Premanand Naik, who had observed a hunger strike against the Bhutani project, criticised the functioning of the panchayat.