TEAM HERALD
CANSAULIM: Although the monsoon is at the door steps, the pre-monsoon works yet to begin in Cansaulim-Arossim-Cuelim (CAC) village panchayat jurisdiction. Surprisingly none of the panchayat members disagree that several village wards are prone to witness flood like situation during heavy rains, but still the work is yet to start.
On Tuesday, an inspection of the wards revealed that out of the total 25 major nullahs and drains, majority are clogged with mud, and dry leaves and plastic waste are a common sight at many places. All this is because of unstable panchayat politics and musical chairs over the last couple of months leaving no time for the panch members to pay attention to pre-monsoon works.
A random survey of CAC villages in Cortalim showed a sorry story of the preparedness by the panchayat, and villagers expressing concern over possible water-logging and outbreak of vector-borne diseases. “Five years back, our panchayat building got flooded after the State witnessed heavy rains. Even several houses and shops got flooded but still we have not learnt lessons and this year there is again delay in carrying out pre-monsoon works,” reported Anthony de Sa, an Arossim villager.
Well the villagers’ anger is obvious, but the panchayat body which is struggling with issues of petty politics now claims that the work is pending only because the concerned Water Resources Department, which undertakes the cleaning of major nullahs have kept the file pending for reasons best known to them, explains panch Savio Dias.
“We have passed a resolution and the same as sent to the WRD, but they are not doing the works, even the PWD roads division whom we had requested for some important road works is ignoring the proposals sent by us,” Savio charged.
What surprises the villagers is that despite collecting tax as high as Rs 25 lakh for the current year, the panchayat is awaiting response from the government to carryout pre-monsoon works in the village in total disregard for autonomy and self-government to the villages under the 73rd Amendment.
