the goan I network
OLD GOA
Upset over the non-fulfillment of assurances made in the last gram sabha, Santa Cruz locals took the panchayat authorities to task while opining whether the villagers should repose their trust in the panchayat in the future.
At the gram sabha on Sunday, Santa Cruz Sarpanch Mariano Araujo was initially caught on the wrong foot regarding an NOC issued to a builder. “Instead of revoking the NOC, the panchayat has sided with the builder by challenging a villager’s appeal to revoke the NOC,” advocate Anthony Lourenco pointed out and chided the sarpanch for making false assurances to the gram sabha. “If you cannot fulfil the promises, don’t make them,” a frustrated Lourenco stated.
When the issue of demolition of illegal structures at Bondvoll Lake was taken up, Araujo said he had proposed the same at the fortnightly meeting and deputy sarpanch Sonu de Araujo seconded it, but none of the other panchas supported the resolution and hence the issue could not be taken forward.
Startled at the disclosure, Peter Gonsalves questioned why the panchas did not support the resolution when they had assured that they would support resolution on demolition of structures, at the last gram sabha.
Realising that the panchayat authorities were taking the people for a ride, the villagers again asked the panchas to clear their stand on demolition of structures at Bondvoll Lake, but this time around the entire episode was captured by the villagers on their phones, as a proof.
Though all the panchas present supported demolition of structures at Bondvoll Lake, the villagers were skeptical whether they would really keep or go back on their word.
The issue of denotification of Santa Cruz areas from GPPDA was also raised with villagers questioning why the denotification has not been published as yet despite assurances to the contrary by the TCP minister.
The panchayat was later directed to write to the TCP and demand denotification of areas from Santa Cruz, at the earliest.
