From ‘Riches to Rags’, Sancoale village Panchayat is a classic example of how a panchayat once ranked as richest in state, not only lost its numero uno but also remains neglected for over half a decade.
Financially Sancoale Panchayat is still very strong as over Rs 7 crores is stored in the Panchayat treasury. All this because the Panchayat has lots of revenue sources, including from companies at Sancoale IDC, Zuari industries and other tax collection like house tax. However, there are still other outstanding dues to be collected by the Panchayat.
In last four-and-half years this village, which is part of Cortalim constituency, has seen four sarpanchas in the 11-member Panchayat body. The 11 elected members of Panchayat include Sharan Meti, Shivanand Bingi, Narayan Naik, Anita Mulidar, Derick Vales, Shilpa Naik, Govind Lamani, Rangappa Kamal, Asha Naik, Rosalina Moniz and Sarpanch Ramakant Borkar.
Of the issues the panchayat faces, the main is that it operates from a dilapidated building despite being financially very strong.
Considering this fact the villagers had demanded for a new Panchayat Ghar but except for a foundation stone, the facility is yet to become a reality. Similarly the state government had laid a foundation stone for a Kala Bhawan Project for which the local Panchayat had donated prime land at Upasnagar. However, even this project remained incomplete till date. Likewise the work of beautification of Bandolem Lake is still pending.
The Panchayat body along with the MLA even promised to make Sancoale garbage free village, but after few cleanliness drives and media publicity things never changed and this village is still facing garbage issues. It would be unfair to say that the panchayat did nothing to resolve the issue of garbage as genuine efforts were made to implement scientific disposal of garbage generated from the village. But as the village falls under the airport flying zone, the panchayat was unable to find a suitable land for setting up a garbage disposal site, though segregation of garbage has been taking place at some facilities created by the Panchayat body. However, this segregation is not enough to cater to the needs of number of people living in the village.
Another major issue in Sancoale village, which has also become an eyesore, is the open defecation at the Zuarinagar slums. Panchayat till date has only made tall claims that they would make Zuarinagar open defecation free, but the ground situation has not changed, despite some new public toilets being constructed. Similarly majority of the population in Sancoale lives in Zuarinagar slums which lack basic facilities. At Zuarinagar the people wanted a market complex, proper sanitation, and health care facility but all these has only remained as assurances.
The panchayat body has been duly holding gram sabha meetings at regular intervals. In the last one year the major issues discussed in the gram sabhas were the villagers’ opposition to the demarcation of prime land into private forest, marina project in Sancoale bay, shifting of casinos to river Zuari and mobile towers.
With Panchayat elections due shortly, the majority of the elected panchas are keen to contest again hoping to get re-elected.
