Team Herald
MARGAO: The Sunday gram sabha of Loutolim in one voice voted in favour of a mobile tower in the village at an appropriate place acknowledging the fact that the villagers are not technical persons who could State where the tower should be erected.
Sarpanch Inacinho Fernandes disclosed that the panchayat had received three applications for erecting mobile towers in the village and the villagers unanimously resolved that they be approved and further stated that the towers will be erected by adhering to the laid down guidelines.
“Connectivity is becoming a big problem in the village and even students are suffering as they do not have connectivity,” he said making a strong case in favour of erecting mobile tower in the village.
Sharp division amongst the villagers were visible at the gram sabha with the majority being in support of the new body elected which time and again objected and even jeered the group supporting the previous panchayat body.
Incidentally, eight of the nine panchayat members were present for the meeting with former sarpanch Maria Monteiro being the only one absent though her husband was very much present. In all there were around 100 people present for the gram sabha.
The sarpanch asserted his right at the beginning itself making it very clear that nobody could use the microphone kept for villagers unless he gave the permission to do so. He assured the villagers that the panchayat would contact the police and Anti Narcotic Cell to keep a watch on the places in the village where drugs are consumed.
While assuring the villagers that all the drains would be cleaned soon, he lamented that some previous panchayat member had even taken the funds for doing this work and even submitted muster roll giving details of when the work was done.
However, he did not name the previous panchayat member even though there was a virulent demand from the villagers to do so.
Similarly, he assured the crowd that the present body would erect the wire meshes at the two culverts as was decided earlier by the gram sabha and further said the cattle guards would be inspected to ensure that they actually do the work for which they were installed.
“We have decided to collect plastic waste from households every week instead of the present system of collecting it once a month,” he said and also assured that stringent action will be taken against those burning plastic.
The gram sabha also ratified applications from three persons for Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.
under which they would get funds to repair their houses.
