MARGAO
This may make interesting reading. Around 800 cases of illegal constructions are pending before the deputy Director of Panchayats, South Goa.
Overwhelming majority of these cases involve Niz Goemkars and hardly a few outsiders. That’s not all. Most of these cases pending before the Deputy Panchayat Director relates to petty disputes, either involving two brothers or immediate neighbours.
Of the 800 illegal construction cases, hardly 10 per cent of these cases, around 80 cases to be precise, involve migrants.
These statistics were dished out by Deputy panchayat Director, Prasidh Naik at an interaction called by Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar at the Ravindra bhavan, Margao on Tuesday.
In fact, Naik made a fervent plea to Sarpanchas and panchayats to resolve the small and petty matters at the Panchayat level, before the cases come before his office. “Around 800 cases pertaining to illegal constructions are pending before my office till date. Overwhelming majority of cases involves Goemkars, including litigation initiated by brothers against brothers and neighbours against neighbours. Most of these cases are petty matters”, he said.
Making an appeal to the Sarpanchas to resolve the issues at the level by working out a compromise amongst the parties to end the cases, the deputy Panchayat director reminded that his hands are tied when these cases come to his office since he has to go as per the law in force.
“The Sarpanchas should see whether these cases can be resolved through a comprise or some adjustment amongst the parties. Our hands are tied when these cases come before us since we have to go by the rules and not by the heart. We have to dispose the cases by invoking the rules and laws in force”, he added.
Praising Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar’s Shram Dhan initiative to provide housing for the poor and downtrodden, the Panchayat deputy Director said many a housing scheme could not reach the intended beneficiaries because of a host of limitation, including house documents, house tax receipts. “To overcome the hurdles, Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho has come out with the Enable House Number (EHN) which has helped many people to avail schemes for house repairs and construction”, Naik said.
