Refund people’s money if bio-toilets can’t be provided: Borim Panchayat

PONDA: Borim Panchayat, on Saturday, demanded that government refund people’s money if it cannot provide the bio-toilets under the open defecation free (ODF) scheme.

Addressing media persons, Sarpanch Bhavna Naik said, “If government can’t provide bio-toilets to locals under the ODF scheme, then, it should return the funds collected from Borim locals.”

Naik said the panchas are publicly taken to task by Borim locals as the government has failed to provide them bio-toilets despite depositing their money. 

The press conference was also addressed by Deputy Sarpanch Sunil Sawkar and Panch Constancio Luis.

Panch Constancio Luis said that government should return the money to locals as it failed to provide them with toilets. 

Sawkar said that based on BDO’s request, the panchayat had declared the village as ODF free on October 2. However, the toilets which were promised earlier have not been provided as yet. “The locals are frequently asking us about bio-toilets and demanding refund of their money,” Sawkar said.

Sawkar said the panchayat had taken deposit of Rs 5,000 per applicant from general category, Rs 3,000 from OBC and Rs 2,000 from STs and SCs. Borim panchayat collected the money from 207 applicants and sent it to the government but till date not a single toilet has been provided. 

Meanwhile, Sawkar alleged that the Electricity Department has failed to provide three phase connection to a house owner for past three years claiming that there is a problem but for contractors are allegedly providing transformers for the residential complex.  He demanded that government allow the panchayat to give house numbers to people, who had constructed houses in their property. This will generate revenue for the panchayat. There are 300 applicants for house numbers which are pending due to government decision banning the panchayat from issuing house numbers since 2017.

“We are missing out on revenue because of this as electricity and water connections are provided to them. We are only forced to lift garbage without any income from them,” he said and complained that LED streetlights are not functional despite lodging complaints in November.

He alleged that the government has not paid them the share of revenue towards octroi collected by it from petrol pumps in the panchayat jurisdiction.

He said at least Rs 1 crore is due from government towards octroi duty.