Team Herald
MARGAO: Following an outcry over spending public funds to create assets for individuals, Paroda Sarpanch Inacio Tereza promised that in future the panchayat would undertake works only after getting the same approved by the gram sabha.
At the gram sabha on Sunday, the villagers took the panchayat to task for taking up works under the panchayat funds which actually should have been done by the individual who benefitted from it. And in one case the villagers pointed out that the person helped had constructed an illegal house.
Former sarpanch Gabriel Fernandes pointed out that retaining walls being constructed at Coriado in Ward No 3 and at Muloso in Ward No 7 were to help individuals who had constructed their houses without first constructing the retailing wall.
While the wall at Coriado is being constructed at a cost of Rs 4.63 lakh the one at Muloso is being constructed by spending Rs 4.97 lakh. “Why this much public fund should be spent on undertaking works that are helping only one individual?” Gabriel asked.
Villagers Lourenco Carvalho and Prashan Jotkar pointed out that the panchayat was not undertaking works that would help the public at large but instead was taking up works meant to benefit some selected people.
Gabriel claimed out that on the pretext of constructing a drain, literally a canal has been constructed in Ward No 6 by spending Rs 3.37 lakh. The sarpanch admitted that this work was done to stop two families from fighting.
After much discussion, the sarpanch admitted that public funds were being wasted and she promised to place all proposals before the gram sabha and take up the works in future only after the gram sabha approves the work.
Nearly half an hour was spent on confirming the minutes of the previous meeting: it was pointed out that the minutes of the gram sabha held on June 3 were not approved, because the secretary who noted those minutes had expired.
As the panchayat has now got a new secretary, the villagers were assured that the minutes would be rewritten and presented at the next gram sabha and villagers were requested to help and assist in preparing the minutes.
The panchayat was also accused of regularizing illegal structures by giving house numbers, even when the applicant is not the owner of the land nor has any document or plan. Gabriel highlighted two such cases: one by Shailesh Jotkar who constructed a house in 2008 in a property that does not belong to him.
“The panchayat has issued house number to these houses even though by its own admission, the applicant did not produce any property document or sale deed or construction plan or completion certificate or occupancy certificate,” said Gabriel asking how the house number could be issued.
The panchayat was also asked to inspect the encroachment on government property where a person has actually demarcated plots over land under which the Selaulim water supply pipeline lies.
Gabriel also hauled up the panchayat for not publicising the fact that application for regularisation of illegal structures should have been submitted by October 31 as nearly 95 per cent of the houses in Paroda are illegal and many people could have got their structures regularised.
The panchayat said it would publicise if the government grants an extension to submit these application as indicated to them.
