PANJIM: The Azossim–Mandur gram sabha on Sunday turned stormy following a face-off between sarpanch Ajit Bacal and St Andre MLA Viresh Borkar.
The trouble started when Borkar participated in the discussion. Initially Bacal replied to his questions related to the village panchayat but as the MLA and his supporters started creating ruckus, the sarpanch stopped Borkar and told him that he was not a villager of Azossim-Mandur panchayat.
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Bacal drew Borkar’ attention to Section5 of Goa Panchayati Raj Act 1994 wherein only the village electoral has a right to speak in the gram sabha. “You are not a voter of the Azossim-mandur village panchayat and you have no right to speak in the gram sabha,” Bacal told Borkar.
This annoyed Borkar and his supporters as the gram sabha turned stormy. Borkar, who is the resident of neighbouring Neura Village Panchayat, raised questions related to water supply in the panchayat area.
Borkar had raised objections over development of plots for mega housing project at Azossim hill near the hospital and claimed that water supply was diverted towards the housing project. To this, Bacal said that the water supplied from Dongrim water tank was for the villages of Mandur, Dongrim and Neura and therefore the question of water diversion does not arise.
The second issue raised by Borkar was that of illegal migrants in the panchayat jurisdiction and asked the panchayat to maintain the record. But the sarpanch clarified that the panchayat has no such provisions under the Goa Panchayato Raj Act to maintain record of the migrants, who are residing on rental basis and that such records were maintained by the Police Department.
During the gram sabha, Bacal kept on insisting that the functioning of village panchayat is based on the Goa Panchayati Raj Act and not on the whims of some individuals, but Borkar did not adhere to this and had a different view resulting in difference of opinion between the two.
When Borkar insisted that the village panchayat should not approve housing projects, Bacal told him to raise the matter before the Town and Country Planning (TCP) Department and ask them not to grant such technical permissions. He also told the MLA to raise the issue in the Goa Legislative Assembly not in the gram sabha, which had no powers to stop projects approved by the TCP Department.
