This decision was taken at the first meeting of the newly formed Quepem Municipal Council held on Wednesday. The meeting was headed by Chairperson Filu D’Costa and Paulo Fernandes.
The meeting has accepted the proposal moved by Filu to upload all the confirmed resolutions on the QMC website to bring in transparency in the council’s functioning. This decision of the council has been applauded by all the councillors.
Except for three, the council meeting was attended by all the councillors and Chief Officer Pramod Dessai.
Raising the issue of houses that have not been assessed to tax, Councillor Rashmi Bhandari said, “70 to 80 percent of houses in my ward have got house numbers, while the rest have no house numbers, which prevents us from collecting tax from them.”
There are several houses within the Quepem municipal jurisdiction that have been given water and electric connections on dearness grounds, but do not come under the tax ambit as they don’t have numbers.
“If these houses are numbered and taxes are collected, the QMC will benefit from the money,” said Rashmi.
Councillors Dayesh Naik, Raul Pereira, Amol Kanekar and others supported the proposal of Ms Bhandari.
Strongly backing the proposal, Dayesh Naik advised the council to be impartial while allotting number to houses. Tax from houses that have not been assessed, would bring in huge revenue to the council, he added.
Stating that Quepem youth were being dragged into the drug menace and drug abuse has become rampant in the area, Councillor Amol Kanekar requested the Council to write to the police to crack down on the menace.
Backing the claim of Kanekar, Chairperson Filu D’Costa said youth from Benaulim and Varca come to Quepem for drugs party. “Lonely places like Bhomdamol, Devsa are the prime spots and the youth are seen taking drugs in these areas,” she claimed.
