Nagoa village panchayat has managed to generate Rs.10.5 crore of revenue in its coffers by wisely utilising its limited resources and setting a best example before rest of the panchayats from Goa. The panchayat, despite its small size, agrarian land, and less population, has managed to resolve its issues and has put efforts in making their panchayat an ideal one.
Nagoa, a beautiful and pristine South Goa village, adjacent to its wider known industrial hub neighbour, Verna, is located approximately 11 km north of the south-Goa district headquarters, Margao, 17 km south-east of Vasco-da-gama and 22 km south-east of the State capital Panjim. With just 7 wards in Nagoa, it is a small but beautiful village and the same extends to its people.
Deemed as one the best, the village panchayat is constantly striving for the betterment of its citizens. They work hard and have ambition to provide the best to its villagers. Nagoa Panchayat was first formed on November 15, 1996 by the Nagoa Citizen Committee.
This small village of Nagoa has some remarkable positive traits which all other panchayats from Goa should take inspiration, this small village with very little resources has developed its own mechanism to generate revenue and has tried to make the village self sustainable by bringing projects which will benefit the panchayat and the villagers in the long run.
One such major revenue generating projects is the Nagoa football ground which was developed by Sports Authority of Goa (SAG), few years back during the tenure of late former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. On the request of the panchayat the ground was brought directly under the Nagoa panchayat according to Sarpanch Glivena Vaz and now the revenue generated from this football ground goes to the panchayat.
There are several other revenue generating projects such as gymnasium, fair price shop which are under panchayat and the panchayat also pays salary to the staff working in these shops. The gymnasium is also getting good response from the villagers and it also generates handsome revenue for the panchayat.
The panchayat secretary of Nagoa, Sachin Naik, said that another project of community hall cum indoor stadium under Din Dayal Infrastructure Development Scheme of Directorate of Panchayat is coming up and the same will be executed by Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC). Estimated to cost around Rs 2 crore this project is also expected to generate income for the panchayat.
He also informed that the panchayat has proposed a rice mill in order to overcome difficulties of local farmers which will be functioning on solar power. Panchayat is also taking steps to protect and preserve existing wells and water bodies. The panchayat body also doesn’t permit digging new bore wells in the village.
Naik said that Sopo tax is directly collected by the panchayat which is around Rs 15,000 per month. IDC compensation from the industries is received by the panchayat which comes to Rs 70 lakh annually.
When questioned about the issues which the Nagoa village faces, Sarpanch Glivena Vaz said; “In the past there was a major issue of garbage with the migrants mostly giving mixed waste, but recently the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) has started and the waste segregation is being done. The panchayat does ward wise weekly door to door garbage collection. We are now in the process of solving the wet garbage treatment issue.” The Sarpanch said that Nagoa Panchayat collects dry waste once a week. “Per week around 400 kg of dry waste and monthly 1600 kg approximately dry waste is being collected and handed over for disposal,” she added.
She also revealed that there is a plan to use this wet food residual waste for piggery and domestic animals from which it will be taken care naturally. Wet waste could be also used as manure in fields, gardens.
Check on migrants
Commenting over another issue, Vaz said that the rampant increase in the migrant influx in the village due to the neighbouring industrial area has also put some pressure on the limited resources from the Nagoa village. “We are not getting satisfactory cooperation from some villagers, especially the house owners who rent their premises to these migrants. Due to the floating population, the garbage, water supply issues start. But to solve this problem, the panchayat has come up with the new idea to keep track of the migrant population from the village. A migrant identity card has been invented wherein the details of the migrant and the name of the house owner where he/she is staying on rent will be mentioned. This will help in keeping accountability of the migrants entering and exiting the Nagoa village.”
“Another benefit of this card will be that in case of any criminal case or any matter of dispute, the government agencies like police, etc will easily be able to track the outsider,” she said. The Nagoa panchayat also has a register wherein the personal details of the migrants have been mentioned for the record.
Few years back, Herald had highlighted that the Nagoa village is facing the problem wherein some individuals, anti-social elements tend to get engaged in the usage of narcotic substances in secluded places, but later police started patrolling which brought down such activities for some days. Sarpanch Vaz stated that to keep watch on such anti-social activities Nagoa panchayat has installed CCTV cameras at several locations and we expect the nearby police to do patrolling regularly in our village to keep anti-social elements and activities at bay.
The sarpanch said that the panchayat area has got agricultural land available. “We have one tractor which is given to the farmers at subsidised rates. The local MLA has also helped farmers by giving free seeds, fertilizers, etc.”
Roads in our village are in good condition as compared to other villages. Water and power supply is satisfactory although we need a mechanised crane to attend to the faults in the wires or at the elevated areas. Vaz also said that the panchayat is planning to introduce flloodlights at Nagoa football ground using solar power.
