Neura O Grande tenants panel poll adjourned

The election was slated on Monday at the Neura panchayat hall but as very few members of the association remained present, the polls were postponed to February 10.

Speaking to the media, farmer Eloy Araujo demanded that the election meeting be held on a Sunday so that all farmers could attend.

“We have already undertaken a signature campaign and we will submit application to the Tiswadi Mamlatdar to hold the election meeting on Sunday,” he informed.

When informed that the election date has already been set on February 10, which is a Wednesday, Araujo said the farmers would approach the sarpanch, ZP member and the local MLA to set a date as per the wishes of the farmers.

Meanwhile, several farmers who remained present for the election meeting thought that the meeting was called to redress the grievances of the farmers.

A farmer, Manohar Mahadev Naik, informed that when public announcement was made, it was informed that a meeting of the farmers will be held and there was no mention of any election.

“Today, we came to know that it was an election meeting but it was all chaos. The purpose of the meeting was also not clearly explained and it ended abruptly,” Naik said.

“Today, we were under the impression that a farmers meeting was called but we were shocked to see that it was a meeting for the election to the managing committee of the tenants association,” a local Viresh Borkar informed.

Jeetu Sawant also demanded that the process of registering names of farmers be expedited. “Many farmers have also applied for inclusion of names with the tenants association as well as for Kisan cards but the process is taking forever,” Sawant alleged.

Some farmers also complained that the voters’ roll of the association has not been updated. “The voters’ roll has not been updated since Goa’s liberation. It is of Portuguese era,” farmer Manohar Naik said.