Upset over unfulfilled promises made to a temple committee at Moitem, Assonora, locals blamed the panchayat for clandestinely granting NOC to a hotel project in the area without taking the locals into confidence.
the goan I network
MAPUSA
The committee members of Shree Krishna Gothneshwar Prasanna of Moitem on Sunday cornered Sarpanch Sapna Mapari for failing to honour promises made to the temple committee and the panchayat’s complete sellout to a hotel promoter in the area.
“Whenever key projects are being set up in a village, it has to be first discussed in the gram sabha. The issue of the hotel project was never brought up in any of the gram sabha meetings by the panchayat,” Sanjay Mapari, a local lashed out.
Putting the blame squarely on the sarpanch, he said NOC was covertly issued to the hotel project without taking the locals into confidence.
“You said NOC will not be issued to the project unless the temple committee is taken into confidence and did just the opposite,” he said pointing to the sarpanch.
Defending the panchayat, Sarpanch Sapna Mapari said the project was discussed at one of the gram sabhas. She further said she was compelled to issue the NOC or else the Director of Panchayat would have done so and the panchayat would lose revenue. “The panchayat can hold back NOC to a project for three months. If we had failed to issue the NOC, the DoP would do so and the revenue by way of licence fees would be pocketed by the office of the director of panchayat,” the sarpanch said. “After three months we issued the NOC to the project,” she added.
Deputy Sarpanch, Savio Azavedo came to the aid of the sarpanch by stressing that the hotel project was discussed at one of the gram sabhas.
According to the locals in the know, the hotel promoter had promised the temple committee to construct a hall behind the temple as demanded. Accordingly, the promoter had asked the members to approach the panchayat for necessary permissions.
The hotel project that is coming up in Moitem-vaddo in Assonora is located opposite to the temple. Raising the issue at the gram sabha, a local, Makarand Vaigankar said the temple committee had placed a file before the panchayat in 2015, but the it failed to make any headway on the request.
Another local, Kishore pointed out that the sarpanch had issued permission for the hotel keeping the temple committee members in the dark.
“I am sure the sarpanch has not even taken a look at our file,” he said.
The sarpanch informed the members that she was under the impression that the matter was being settled between the temple committee members and the local MLA. She also said that Form 1 and 14 including the property owner’s NOC was necessary to be included in the file.
She has fixed a meeting with the temple committee members on November 2 to discuss on the issue in detail.
