Team Herald
MARGAO: Approving a deficit Budget, the Raia gram sabha on Sunday rejected the Public Biodiversity Register (PBR) adopted by it at the earlier meeting held on March 7, and resolved that the same be presented properly for discussion at the next gram sabha.
The villagers argued that they were not provided with a copy of the PBR and hence could not study it. They therefore said it was not proper to say that the villagers have adopted the PBR when it was not even discussed.
They rejected the Biodiversity Committee Chairman Xavier Fernandes’ contention that the PBR was a confidential document and were upset to learn that even the sarpanch was not provided with the PBR copy.
The villagers said as per the guidelines, the PBR is not to be shared with people from outside the village but can be discussed with the locals. They demanded that a copy of the PBR be presented to the villagers for their perusal.
It was decided to consider the PBR at the next gram sabha for the villagers getting sufficient time to study it and the panchayat was asked to provide copies of it to the villagers as and when they asked for it.
The proposal to name some of the village roads after prominent villagers witnessed heated discussion and the same could not be finalised even as the sarpanch said the panchayat is not empowered to name roads in the village and said she would write to the collector on the matter.
It was proposed to name some roads after famous tiatrists from the village like M Boyer, Airistedes and Luciano and also a road was proposed to be named after Anton Gaonkar, the former MLA from the village and also former sarpanch.
Meanwhile, the gram sabha approved a deficit Budget where the total income was projected at Rs 2.20 crore while the total expenditure was pegged at Rs 3.86 crore. The total income expected from house tax is Rs 18 lakh and Rs 6 lakh is proposed to be spent on maintaining the ground.
