Team Herald
MARGAO: The Raia gram sabha took strong exception to Sarpanch Esmeralda Gomes’ absence from the meeting and asked the panchayat to write to the Director of Panchayats not to depute panchayat staff as observers for gram sabha meetings.
The meeting started on a fiery note with the villagers objecting to the absence of the sarpanch, who, the Deputy Sarpanch Mario D’Souza who was conducting the meeting said was on a week-long leave for personal reasons.
The panchayat Secretary, Sanjiv Naik, admitted that the sarpancha’s leave application was not approved by the panchayat body as it was received after its meeting. The villagers argued that since the leave was not sanctioned, it should be noted that the sarpanch had abstained from the meeting.
It may be recalled that a complaint was lodged on October 13 against Raia Sarpanch under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act after Anthony Barbosa from Raia stating that she had abused him on the basis of his caste.
A member of the gram sabha Xavier Fernandes alleged that the Director of Panchayat was transgressing into the duties and responsibilities of the village panchayat by deputing panchayat staff as observers for gram sabhas.
“The staff of our panchayat is paid their wages by the panchayat and not the government and hence the Director of Panchayats cannot depute our staff to do their work and if that is done then the Director of Panchayat should reimburse the panchayat the wages that are paid to their staff,” he said.
Xavier had no objection to panchayat staff whose salary is paid by the government doing their work, but took strong exception to the staff being paid by the panchayat doing the work meant to be done by the government servants.
After heated discussions over mistakes in the recording of the minutes, the gram sabha resolved to record that the budget estimates were approved by the panchayat body without it being discussed at the gram sabha.
It was pointed out that at the gram sabha held on 13th May the budget estimates were placed before the gram sabha but were not discussed as the gram sabha was asking for a special date to discuss the budge and that was not accepted by the panchayat.
Following complaints from Raia Farmers Club that the slaked lime (chunnam) brought by Govind Poy Oxygen factory in the village was entering the fields specially during the monsoons and that the place emits obnoxious odours when the lime is brought the panchayat agreed to write to the Pollution Control Board and Health Department to inspect the site.
The panchayat also agreed to write to the Electricity Department to ensure that the persons coming to issue the electricity bills in the village wear the prescribed uniform and also carry their identity card with them to be produced on demand.
The gram sabha also decided to conduct a survey of non-Goans carrying out their own business in the village particularly in fast food industry and also check if they have Food and Drug Administration License.
