Team Herald
MARGAO: At a special gram sabha held on Sunday people of Guirdolim decided to keep a watch on migrants staying in rented premises in their village, and also pulled up the panchayat for not taking them into confidence and also for not following up on decisions taken at the gram sabha.
The issue of migrants living in rented premises in the village was discussed at length in view of the attack on an elderly couple from the village in the early hours of July 1 as one of the assailants was a person who had earlier lived in the room of the couple on rental basis.
The panchas agreed to undertake a survey of their wards to identify how many people are living in rented premises and in whose premises for which a special form would be prepared. “But we need help and cooperation from the villagers who should inform the panchayat member concerned about people living in rented premises in their neighbourhood,” said Deputy Sarpanch Franky Rodrigues.
It was also decided to ask the police to submit to the panchayat every month a copy of the stranger verification form filled up by the villagers. “The migrants keep changing every month and hence it will be necessary to collect this information every month,” a villager said.
It was also decided to compare the list prepared by the panchayat member and the one submitted by the police and to intimate the police and land owner about migrants whose form has not been submitted.
As regards to migrants moving around in the night, it was decided to ask the land owners keeping migrants on rental basis to ask them to return home by 8.30 pm and further if anybody suspicious was found on the streets the police outpost be informed about it since the outpost was in the village itself.
A villager Anna D’Costa suggested that the land owners be asked to pay one month’s rent received from the migrants to the panchayat as provided by the law and also lamented that the panchayat does not take people into confidence.
Revealing that she is a members of the Village Development Committee, the Garbage Management Committee and the Biodiversity Committee, she said meetings of these committees have not been held since the panchayat was constituted.
Railway Under Pass: The panchayat was directed to write the the railway authorities reminding them about the gram sabha resolution taken in October 2017 which was conveyed to them vide a letter dated October 11, 2017 about having an underpass at Level Crossing No 18 in the village.
The villagers also expressed surprise that this matter was not followed up by the panchayat as no reminder was sent since the authorities did not reply to the letter till date. Panchayat Member Brian Pereira asserted that they followed up this matter with the elected MLA as it is a matter concerning the local body, state government and Central government.
As it was pointed out that neighbouring Chandor Cavorim Panchayat was objecting to construction of the flyover near the steel factory without which work on the underpass could not commence, it was pointed out that the panchayat stick to only matters concerning their village and not get involved with other panchayat matters.
Garbage Management: The villagers decided to seek Rs 50,000 from the Director of Panchayats to install CCTV cameras at places that have emerged as favourite garbage dumping sites. It was also decided to set up a garbage segregating unit in the panchayat plot and if that was found unsuitable then another site be identified for the same.
“We have a person collecting garbage from household and hence we shall start collecting segregated waste only shortly and use this place to keep the segregated waste and deal with it,” said Franky.
Power Outrages: It was decided to hold a joint meeting with the electricity department engineers, contractors and the villagers to thrash out the problem of frequent power failures and non-attendance to complaints of street light failures.
Villager had a lot of complaints about the power situation and how they have suffered due to power failures lasting even for two days. Franky lamented that people were talking at the gram sabha but hardly anybody came for the demonstration that was scheduled earlier and urged people to participate in such activities to express their grievances.
