TEAM HERALD
RAIA: Raia gram sabha on Sunday under the leadership of Isidorio C Jose Rodrigues unanimously passed a resolution opposing the proposed move of the government to amend the Panchayat Act to hold elections on party lines.
Former sarpanch Xavier Fernandes who moved the resolution highlighted that panchayat election on party line will result in disharmony and enmity among villagers, who will be targeted by elected members.
He said the candidates will be selected by respective party high command and that villagers who want to work for the welfare of village and contest independently shall have no chance as there will be flow of money for those candidates contesting on party lines.
He further said the sarpanch will be chosen by the high command of the party and that respective parties will control the sarpanch and that there shall be no freedom in panchayat election and requested villagers to oppose the move which found unanimous support from gram sabha members.
The gram sabha also witnessed debate and discussion over the issue raised by Peter Carvalho in regard to resolution to collect one month’s rent from rented premises.
The panchayat secretary was grilled for having informed at last gram sabha that an amount of Rs 43,000 had been collected from renteted premises while an RTI reply said that no amount was collected.
Carvalho while accusing secretary of lying and calling him incompetent stated that villagers had right to question the credibility of panchayat members as resolution taken at gram sabha in October 2012 no action was taken by the body. Sarpanch promised that action shall be taken before November 2014.
Carvalho also raised the issue of the water spring in village that belongs to the local comunidade being used as garbage dumping ground and demanded that notice be issued to the comunidade to clean the same. He suggested that if the comunade fails to clean the area then a penalty be impose and in failure to pay the penalty the spring area be acquired by the panchayat.
Francisco Colaco, Geraldo Rebelllo, Manuel Barboza raised issue on land being acquired for Scheduled Tribes community at Poriebhat; flooding at Arlem circle; development of football ground at Manora and illegal scrapyard and construction at Manora.
The gram sabha meeting ended with the sarpanch promising that necessary action would be initiated inthe various issues raised.
The gram sabha also adopted a congratulatory resolution, congratulating gram sabha member Antony Pango, for being elected for the forth consecutive term as member of Goa Football Association, a feat not accomplished by many.
Foul by Raia Sporting Club
At the Sunday Raia village gram sabha, it was a football game of a different kind with villagers airing their strong resentment on the attitude of Raia Sporting Club allegedly disrespecting local village panchayat by not mentioning panchayat’s name as well as the name of Sarpanch on the invitation of the football finals held on August 5, though the finals were played on Raia panchayat ground.
Gram sabha member Francisco Colaco set the ball rolling and received support from the gram sabha members, who demanded that the Club tender an apology to the village panchayat for the incident.
He demanded that the club should not be allowed to use the panchayat football ground if they fail to apologize to the villagers.
However, lone gram sabha member Edwin Vaz who is learnt to be member of the club disagreed with the motion moved by Colaco and claimed that the club had indeed submitted invitation to sarpanch, secretary and panchas.
The sarpanch confirmed this though he added that though the invitation was sent, it was only on the envelop that the names of the invitees figures and that these names were neither mentioned on the invitation itself nor on the advertisements published by the club.
After a heated discussion on this issue among the gram sabha members, a resolution was finally adopted demanding an apology from the club for this oversight and the objection raised by Vaz was also noted.
