MARGAO: A no objection certificate (NOC) issued in the name of a postal employee has stirred a hornet’s nest in Macasana with some villagers questioning why the NOC was issued without the panchayat adopting a resolution to issue the certificate.
When the branch post office was started about 45 years ago, it was housed in the panchayat office and both were functioning symbiotically. The panchayat has since constructed a new building and shifted there while the branch post office continued to occupy the old panchayat premises.
The electricity bill used to be issued in the name of the Macasana Panchayat which stopped paying the bill once it moved to its new premises. Thereafter, no bill was paid and as such, the electricity to the branch post office was disconnected in 2002.
However, in 2008 then sarpanch Mariano D’Costa issued an NOC to reconnect the electricity; but the NOC was issued in the name of Lorena Barretto who was an employee of the Postal Department and accordingly the electricity was restored and bills were issued in the name of Lorena Barretto who was paying them.
The fact that the bills were issued in the name of an individual for electricity connection granted to panchayat premises came to the notice of the present panchayat body when they checked the records. “While it is true that the panchayat issued the NOC, there is no record of any panchayat resolution to issue NOC; not even an application from either Lorena or the postal authorities,” said Macasana Sarpanch Agnelo Costa.
The panchayat has now asked the postal staff Lorena Barretto to give her NOC to transfer the electricity connection back to the panchayat. However, Lorena has not responded to any of the correspondence; through her husband Joaquim, she is reportedly instigating people and is spreading rumours that the panchayat is trying to shut down the branch post office.
Agnelo asserted that the panchayat does not want to shut down the branch post office but only wants the electricity connection to be in the name of the panchayat and not an individual as was done “fraudulently”.
In 2013, the then panchayat body issued an eviction notice to the branch post office to vacate the premises as they were not paying rent to the panchayat. However, the villagers at a subsequent gram sabha resolved that since the branch post office is rendering service to the villagers, it need not pay the rent and directed the panchayat not to charge them any rent.
