Raking up the issue at the gram sabha on Sunday, Jerry Vaz said everyday new faces are seen in the village and many a times unknown people are seen roaming about beyond midnight.
“Many Goan houses have been converted into lodges without the knowledge of the panchayat authorities,” Vaz informed while stating that such activities not only compromises on the security of the villagers, but also deprive the panchayat of the much needed revenue.
“While a tenants’ verification drive will help to get details of the tenants, it will also help fill the coffers of the panchayat by way of rent fees,” Vaz said and urged the authorities to clamp down on controversial lodges.
However, Sarpanch Assis Fernandes while agreeing to undertake tenants’ verification drive expressed helplessness in acting against the controversial lodges unless he receives a written complaint.
“These illegal lodges have been running for several years and if I act now, the owners will accuse me of witch-hunting,” said Fernandes.
The issue of alleged arrogant attitude of the electricity department staff was also discussed prominently with former sarpanch Walter D’Sousa alleging that the linesmen do not attend to complaints. “Even for a small job of replacing fuse, the linesmen direct to approach the junior engineer,” D’Sousa added.
Panch Lavu Hoble also supported D’Sousa stating that his complaints of streetlights not working has not been attended for several months.
However, another Panch Prakash Naik came to the rescue of the power staff by stating that currently the village is short of staff. “There are only two linesmen who are overburdened with work,” he said and added that if one linesman goes on leave, all the workload falls on the other linesman.
After much discussion, a resolution was passed to urge the power department to depute additional staff to the village, including three linesmen and three helpers.
The villagers of Kumbarvaddy also highlighted the issue of release of sewage water into the fields by two housing societies in their area and urged the authorities to act against these societies, with the panchayat agreeing to it.
