The gram sabha of Cavelossim village witnessed an uproar after local tourist taxi operators threatened to stage a protest along with their families in front of the starred resorts deploying high-end vehicles to transport hotel customers. Santosh Mirajkar
MARGAO
The Cavelossim gram sabha witnessed an uproar on Sunday after local taxi operators threatened to hit the roads along with their families in protest against the move of starred resorts to procure and deploy high-end vehicles to transport hotel guests.
Saying that the vehicles deployed by the hotel owners and managements would spell death knell for the local taxi operators, already reeling under the burden of repayment of loans on high-end vehicles, they demanded that the Sarpanch immediately write a letter to the hotel managements against the deployment of the high-end vehicles or face action.
At the gram sabha meeting chaired by Sarpanch Dixon Vaz, the members demanded that the Sarpanch give an assurance that he would stand by the local taxi operators in their battle to save their business and their livelihood.
Initiating the discussion, gram sabha member Jose D’Costa said the resorts have each procured 13-odd high end vehicles to transport hotel guests, further claiming that the hotel managements are likely to add more such vehicles to their fleet.
Saying that successive Panchayat bodies in the village have failed to secure the interests of the village youth eking a livelihood on the tourist taxi business, he said the panchayats should have protected the interests of the locals by entering into an agreement that the hotels would leave taxi business to the local youth.
“Today, we have reached a situation wherein we have go with a begging bowl to the hotel owners and managements not to procure high-end vehicles just to save our livelihood. Our patience is running out. We will go on a peaceful strike along with our families in front of the hotels if the management deploys the vehicles. Entire Cavelossim village will rise to protest against the hotel owners”, he warned.
He lamented: “While the elected representatives and the hotel managements hands out promises to the locals that the resorts would provide them with business opportunities to run taxis, restaurants and shacks, today we have to go with a begging bowl to the managements not to enter into the taxi business”.
Reminding that the taxi operators have already procured high-end taxis to maintain the standard of the hotels, he said the taxi operators now find it difficult to repay the loans and support their families.
Sarpanch Vaz assured the taxi operators that the Panchayat would write to the managements to address the issue by convening a joint meeting between the hotel managements, local taxi operators, MLA Venzy Viegas and the local Panchayat body.
Meanwhile, sarpanch Vaz told the media that the Panchayat would soon start late night collection of wet garbage dumped along the village road side by appointing a waste collection agency. He said the collected waste would be then sent to the Cacora waste treatment plant for treatment.
Gram sabha members also objected to the six-metre road proposed from behind a starred resort when the width of the existing road is not even three metres.
The issue of CRZ and inclusion of the houses of fishermen and other coastal communities also dominated the meeting, with members demanding that the Panchayat protect the interests of members of all the coastal communities.
The issue of stray dog shelter also came up for discussions with the sarpanch assuring gram sabha members that the dog shelter will be shifted to an alternate site once the panchayat identifies the place.
