Team Herald

VASCO: Tense moments were witnessed at Chicalim on Thursday after the village panchayat asked the self-help groups (SHGs) to remove their stalls erected near Chicalim junction.

The Chicalim panchayat secretary Amrit Sakhalkar stated that the SHGs did not obtain NOCs from them nor from the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) or the Comunidade of Chicalim. The Naval authorities had also objected to these stalls, he said.

Former Chicalim sarpanch Seby Pereira and Congress leader Capt Viriato Fernandes came to the site and requested the panchayat secretary to allow the stalls to function since they were selling homemade products during Diwali festival, especially since the self-help groups had written to the village panchayat for permission.

Pereira said that the panchayat secretary was acting against Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s Goa Swayampurna initiative and asking the SHGs to close their stalls. He also expressed his surprise over the Navy raising its objection to the erection of stalls.

Capt Viriato Fernandes appealed to the panchayat to allow stalls on humanitarian grounds and to grant them NOC.

On the other hand, Sakhalkar said that he had asked the self-help groups not to put up stalls without obtaining NOC from the village panchayat.