The villages of Britona, Malim and Betim on Northern bank of river Mandovi and the areas further North comprising Alto-Betim and Alto-Porvorim, including the Housing Board Colony, taken together form part of the Village Panchayat of Penha de França. It takes its name from the patroness of its Church, Nossa Senhora Da Penha de França which it shares with Penha de França in Lisbon, Portugal.
I was posted to Goa Housing Board as its Secretary in June 1980. Dr. J.C. Almeida, who retired as Chief Secretary Goa, was for some time our Chairman. The Housing Board then functioned from Junta House Panaji. Since 1992, it has been relocated to Porvorim into its own building.
During my 1½ year stint at the Housing Board, an interesting episode took place which I intend to share with your esteemed readers. The Housing Board had to pay village panchayat of Penha de França around Rs 18,000/- towards the license fee of tenements being built within the precincts of the colony. This amount, although may seem to be peanuts today, was quite a figure to a local body not flush with funds in the ‘80s. Shri Bhiku Sawant, the then Sarpanch came to our office with the demand notice of the dues. The notice was promptly processed by the technical section and passed on to accounts section for payment. Shri P.C. Sancoalcar, my friend and colleague who was our Accounts Officer then and who later left his imprint as a very competent Director of Accounts, confirmed that the cheque amount has been dispatched to the Village Panchayat by registered post.
After a week or so, the Sarpanch was back inquiring about the payment. Our obvious advice was to have patience for a week more to account for a possible postal delay. However, the Sarpanch, having lost his patience, turned up again after another week, this time loudly protesting about the non-receipt of the cheque amount. I then called for the file, and to my surprise found from the office copy that the letter dispatched by registered post only carried the following address:
To,
The Sarpanch
V.P., Penha de França.
As often happens in the Government, the dealing hand who had put up the draft of the covering letter for approval, had not suffixed the above address with ‘Britona, Bardez Goa’ (during those good old days pin code was not in vogue). The typist also did not take the pains to inquire from the dealing hand whether the address being typed out was complete or not, with the result the letter after being signed by the Assistant Accounts Officer, was dispatched by registered post, with the incomplete address as above.
The only conclusion we could possibly draw was that the letter might have reached France. However, on second thoughts, we were wondering as to how the envelope with just Rs. 2.80 postage stamp would find its way to a far off country like France. But lo and behold! The envelope, which had indeed reached Paris, was received back after a fortnight with the remarks ‘adresse incomplète’ and ‘renvoyé à l’expéditeur’ meaning, respectively, ‘incomplete address’ and ‘ return to sender’. We then called Shri Bhiku Sawant, opened the envelope in his presence and delivered the lucky cheque, which had travelled all the way to France with just Rs. 2.80 postage stamp, to him in person. In fact, I had preserved this envelope till my retirement in 2004, but, regrettably, destroyed it thereafter.
(The author is O.S.D to Commissioner for NRI Affairs.)
