Team Herald
PARRA: Parra Sarpanch Delilah Lobo informed the gram sabha on Sunday that the panchayat has formed several committees which include a ward development committee, traffic management committee and a road safety committee.
Issues related to garbage tax, hot-mixing of roads and cleaning of gutters were also discussed at the meeting.
Commenting on the committees, former sarpanch Benedict D’Souza questioned Delilah what roles these committees would play in the panchayat. The Sarpanch failed to provide him with a satisfactory answer.
At the gram sabha, a local complained that the gutters in the village have not been cleaned. The sarpanch assured to take up this work on priority and clean the existing gutters.
Benedict pointed out that garbage tax was being collected from the locals since April 1, 2018 despite a garbage collection system not being in place. “Garbage collection is not being executed properly by the panchayat but the people are expected to pay garbage tax. Houses are being charged Rs 500, business establishments and rented rooms are charged Rs 1000 while the open air halls/venues are charged Rs 25,000. The panchayat was supposed to remove the bins placed around the village and have door to door garbage collection but nothing has happened yet,” he said.
In reply, the sarpanch said that the funds required for garbage collection is Rs 27 lakh a year and hence through the garbage tax collected from the houses they were expecting to raise an amount of approximately Rs 10 lakh. The balance amount would be given by the director of Panchayat.
“This is total loot. If the work of door-to-door garbage collection is not tendered soon, people be refunded the garbage tax,” Benedict said.
A villager pointed out that there were a large number of rooms given out on rent to migrants by hoteliers and these establishments were actually generating a lot of garbage. Delilah stated that they were charging a much higher amount from hoteliers as garbage tax.
Another villager brought to the notice of the gathering that hot-mixing of the road at Jackni Vaddo was not taken up and hence demanded that the work be carried out immediately. The Sarpanch assured to take up the work.
Meanwhile Delilah Lobo informed the villagers that a health camp on non-communicable diseases will be organised for the villagers on August 14 at the panchayat hall from 9 am to 1 pm.
