CANACONA
Agonda gram sabha on Sunday witnessed noisy scenes over the issue of water scarcity in the village.
The villagers squarely put the blame on the irrigation department for the water woes in the village, even as the villagers complained of non-supply of tap water, as most house wells have gone dry in the village. PWD was also blamed for failing to augment tap water supply despite having pipeline network from Chapoli dam.
During the ordinary-cum-special gram sabha, an oath was administered to panchas on Panchayat Raj Day.
According to the members, not a single bhandara was erected in either of the two rivers passing through the village. “Almost all the wells in the village have gone dry, and PWD is clueless, not knowing how to augment supply water to the village from what they pump from Chapoli dam,” said a villager.
When villagers questioned irrigation department's failure to construct bhandaras in mudkud in Saleri river, where even the pump house being operated by PWD has gone dry and another at Solgeadhevn in Agonda river, Sarpanch Navneeta Naik Gaunkar rose to defend that since people stopped cultivating Rabi crop, not even a single private bhandara came up anywhere in the two rivers.
The villagers questioned if the irrigation department had any prior information about the farmers' non-cultivation, and if it was so, why the panchayat failed to act and construct bhandaras when these are known to increase and restore ground water.
The villagers claimed that due to the irrigation deparmtent's failure and the panchayat’s unpreparedness in constructing bhandaras, the village was witnessing water shortage.
A villager said, "PWD (water supply) makes an excuse that water level is too low to operate the pump at Mudkud, but it has also failed to augment tap water supply despite sufficient water in Chapoli dam.”
Agonda gets tap water from Chapoli dam and Xelpem-Khola, besides Mudkud river. The Mudkud water level has gone down and Xelpem has gone dry.
Earlier, Panchayat Secretary Sushant Naik Gaunkar while reading the previous gram sabha minutes informed that house tax has been raised to a minimum of Rs 25 and commericial tax to Rs 100 and has come into effect from April 1.
The secretary also informed that the panchayat had denied NOC to erect a mobile phone tower. Street lighting and new roads also featured in the discussions.
