the goan I network
MAPUSA
Migrants defecating in the open and sloppy garbage management in the village dominated the Nachinola gram sabha on Sunday.
Locals said that despite government’s best effort open defecation continued to take place in the village and blamed migrants who lived in rented rooms which had no toilet facility.
Fr Dominic D’Cruz urged the panchayat to take some proactive steps to stop the menace of open defecation.
“In spite of the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan campaign open defecation continues to take place in the village partly due to migrants who live in rented rooms without toilet. Panchayat should conduct survey and take action to stop open defecation,”
Fr D’Cruz said.
Deputy Sarpanch, Freddy Fernandes informed the gram sabha that the panchayat has already carried out an inspection and assured to take action in the matter.
Unhappy with the way the panchayat was going about in collecting and treating garbage, locals demanded an extraordinary gram sabha to discuss the garbage issue in detail.
The villagers were also upset with the steep hike of garbage tax done in a hurry at the last gram sabha.
Questioning the panchayat about its efforts on garbage collection, the villagers expressed unhappiness over the resolution passed by during last gram sabha to increase garbage tax to Rs 500 for households and Rs 1,500 for commercial establishments.
“All the collected waste is stored near the panchayat building giving rise to awful stench in the vicinity,” said Vaman Naik and urged the panchayat to shift the dump site.
The deputy sarpanch informed that panchayat required an area of around 150 sq metre to erect a shed as waste collection point and it has written to the local communidade to provide land for the dump site.
Later, on the request of the villagers the panchayat has decided to hold an extraordinary gram sabha on February 17 to discuss the issue of garbage.
A local, Ritesh Kotwale informed that matka and gambling dens were thriving in the village and called for tough action against the vice.
Fernandes said that he was not aware of any such activity but if such incidents indeed took place then complaints should be lodged before the panchayat and the police.
Villagers put sarpanch to test
MAPUSA: The villagers of Nachinola put a novice Nachinola Sarpanch, Reena Govekar to test by asking her to reply to the gram sabha instead of asking other panch members to speak for her.
The issue cropped up when the sarpanch unable to answer to queries thrown at her said that since it was just one and half month she has taken over, she is handing over the charge to Deputy Sarpanch, Freddy Fernandes to further preside over the gram sabha.
Some villagers objected to the move and said that as per the Panchayati Raj Act there was no such provision to ask the deputy sarpanch to preside when the sarpanch was present.
The acerbic villagers remained adamant urging the sarpanch to continue or to adjourn the meeting.
In bid to get out of the dilemma, the sarpanch excused herself and went and sat among the gram sabha members. But the villagers refused to budge and continued to disrupt the proceedings.
Finally, better sense prevailed and on the intervention of some senior villagers the gram sabha proceedings was started and the deputy sarpanch was allowed to preside over the meeting.
