Arpora panchayat accused of encouraging illegalities
THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA
Illegalities and garbage tax dominated the proceedings at Arpora-Nagao gram sabha on Sunday.
Members brought to the attention of the panchayat that a number of illegalities were going on right under the nose of the panchayat and many times with the patronage of the panch members.
“A construction company has been blatantly carrying out illegal construction in open space just adjacent to my house. My brother had given a written complaint to the panchayat in February. Three months have passed and the panchayat has failed to take any action on the illegality,” said Peter D’Souza blaming the panchayat for encouraging illegalities in Arpora.
D’Souza raised the issue on the illegalities after Panch Augustine D’Souza was trying to convince a gram sabha member that the panchayat could not take action against illegalities without getting a written complaint.
“Why should the panchayat always ask for written complaint from the citizens? Can’t the panchayat take suo moto action on illegalities? If the sarpanch or any panch member is aware or informed about an illegality they can surely take action,” D’Souza said.
Giving another example, he said his wife had recently given a written complaint against the same construction company for building an illegal compound wall touching his, but the panchayat was yet to take action.
Replying to the accusations, Panch Augustine D’Souza said almost all the locals will be affected if panchayat starts to take action on every illegality.
Amir, a member, suggested removing all the pan-patti gaddas dotting all the roads in the panchayat area.
Former sarpanch Salim Sayyed urged the panchayat to take some tough action against a club for snubbing the panchayat and carrying out illegal activities in the area.
He suggested refusal of renewing the club’s licence at the time of renewal.
The panchayat put before the gram sabha a proposal to introduce garbage tax on commercial establishments in the panchayat area.
The panchayat had proposed that hotels with 100 rooms and above would be charged Rs 1 lakh per annum, hotels with 50 rooms Rs 50,000 and guest houses a minimum charge of Rs 1000 depending on number of rooms to let. Local residential dwellings wouldn’t be taxed for garbage collection as per the plan.
Gram sabha members rejected the plan and asked the panchayat to find out what would be the total expense of the pancahayt to collect and dispose garbage from its area.
Sarpanch Mahima Korgaonkar agreed to the suggestion and promised to come out with a detailed plan at the next meet.
At the moment, door-to-door garbage is being collected on alternate days.
