VASCO
While a new police station at Sancoale is being planned, there is some opposition to areas to be included in its jurisdiction.
Sources said the panchayats of Cortalim, Velsao, Sancoale and Cansaulim are likely to be under the new police station jurisdiction.
A group of Cortalim villagers led by panchas Raymond De Sa, Anthony Fernandes and Angela Furtado on Monday submitted a memorandum to Mormugao Dy Collector Dattaraj Gauns Dessai expressing concerns over attempts to move Cortalim out of Verna police jurisdiction and include it in the proposed Sancoale police station.
Claiming to have managed 800 signatures in one day, they have requested Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to retain the village under the Verna Police jurisdiction.
"We have no objection to the new police station at Sancoale but Verna Police Station is centrally located and is easily accessible to villagers of Cortalim in times of emergencies,” De Sa told reporters.
“We demand scrapping of any change in jurisdiction as it will cause huge inconvenience to the citizens of Cortalim village. We feel the sarpanch was aware of this change of jurisdiction but we were kept in the dark.”
De Sa said they had requested a special meeting to pass a resolution against this move, but they were informed that the sarpanch had not received any official information of jurisdiction change and hence, a special meeting could not be convened.
“We began a signature campaign and managed 800 signatures in a day. We will continue this signature campaign and if required, we will get the entire village on the streets to ensure that our village jurisdiction is not changed,” he added.
