MARGAO: The Navelim gram sabha on Sunday while deciding to identify three or four places to erect a mobile tower, outright rejected the proposal to set up a petrol pump in the village and also discussed the pathetic conditions of the road in the village and asked the panchayat to issue stop work order on the Western Bypass work.
While earlier there were objections to erecting a mobile tower in the village, on Sunday at the gram sabha it was decided to identify three or four places where the mobile towers could be erected and the villagers rejected the proposal to have the mobile towers on wheels.
The panchayat disclosed that they had received a proposal from Bharat Petroleum to set up a petrol pump about one km away from the Navelim junction and the panchayat had on December 26, 2018 asked the company to provide details like plan and the location of the pump.
However, the company has not replied to that letter even though a month has passed and the panchayat claimed to have no information at all about the pump including the exact location. The villagers then resolved to reject the proposal to have a petrol pump in the village particularly since Margao where the pumps are situated is close by.
The pathetic condition of the roads in the village, especially following the work on sewerage network, was discussed at length with various villagers listing out their various problems and it was decided to have a joint meeting with the PWD engineers including those looking after the National Highway, the panchayat, MLA and Collector to discuss this issue.
Herald Pinto, a villager, pointed out that the Western Bypass would not have been needed if the Eastern bypass was completed first and sought to know whether the Western bypass would be a flyover or undertaken with mud filling.
Claiming that the work appears to be carried out in a haphazard manner, he sought to know whether any plan has been submitted to the panchayat about the alignment of the bypass and when told no plan was submitted he along with other villagers demanded that a stop work order be issued immediately.
Sarpanch Wilma D’Silva informed that they have identified the hot spots in the village where garbage is being dumped and agreed to install “No Garbage Dumping” signboards at those places after studying the condition of the boards erected earlier.
The villagers were informed that the Town and Country Planning Department had rejected the Rosary Higher Secondary School’s application for extension of building premises as the place where the extension is sought to be carried out is marked as playground on the Regional Plan.
Some of the villagers lamented that correct information is not disseminated to the people as many think that the panchayat has rejected the school’s proposal.
The panchayat informed that the person having a nursery in the fields has been given a provisional NOC and asked to get permissions from the Agriculture and Horticulture department to get a regular NOC. And the person who was running an illegal cement vase manufacturing unit nearby has not only been fined but also his business activity stopped till he gets permission from Pollution Control Board and Small Scale Industries.
The panchayat also resolved to ask the Collector to acquire land at Sirvodem which is in the revenue village of Navelim for developing a playground for the youth of the place.
