This assurance was given at a public meeting held at the Varca pancahyat as a reply from the panchayat to the villager’s demands that steps be initiated to address their grievances on rising crime and power outages recently.
Colva police came under heavy criticism for having failed to solve cases and thus villagers pointed that they did not feel safe. They said that neither a solid precedent had been set to prevent crime nor were any measures initiated by the police to tackle the crime menace in the village.
Listing out examples of unsolved cases that had occurred recently, the villagers impressed upon the pancahyat to write to the Colva police in-charge to get an update and what the police are doing and what the police should be doing with regard to bringing down the number of burglary cases. Based on the request of the Varca residents, the panchayat has also asked the police to intensify patrolling in the village.
Another issue that was raised was the market place where the villagers urged the panchayat to ensure that the fish and vegetable vendors who sit on the roadside to sell their wares be shifted and made to sit in the market place. They added that this would solve the traffic and other congestion issues in the area and questioned why the vendors were not sitting in the market. It was thus unanimously decided that no hawkers be allowed to operate by the roadside and the sarpanch assured to ensure this.
Incidentally after the meeting, the panchayat members accompanied by the people went around the village to tell hawkers to stop operating from the roadside and to move into the market instead
There was also a discussion on the replacement of water meters in Varca. The villagers pointed out that even meters which are functioning properly are now being replaced by JICA and they sought to know why this was done and for what purpose. The sarpanch informed the villagers that he would write to JICA to find out the status of the project and get back to the villagers.
The sarpanch was also asked that there was a need to properly inform the villagers about the work concerning the proposed JICA water supply project that will be undertaken in Varca and which includes construction of a water tank. The villagers also sought to know from the panchayat the status of the reservoir which is being constructed in the village.
Another issue that featured prominently was that of the LPG cylinder which has been raised at previous meetings as well. The locals expressed their anguish over the poor gas service and also pointed out that they were not receiving the subsidy on cylinder on time.
