the goan I network
MAPUSA
Taking Fisheries Minister and local MLA Vinoda Paliencar to task, the villagers of Assagao passed a resolution at Sunday's gram sabha opposing the minister's decision to review subsidies given to fishermen.
Moving the resolution, Edward Rodrigues said there were several people whose livelihood depended on the traditional occupation of fishing.
He said the minister appears to be ill-informed and the decision would definitely go against the interest of the fishing community.
"Fishing is traditional occupation. There are many people in Siolim who make a living on fishing. The MLA cannot make such unilateral statements. He has to study the matter properly," Rodrigues said. "The decision appears to be indirectly facilitating nationalization of rivers," he added.
Supporting the resolution, Sarpanch, Jallinder Gaonkar, said the minister should have known that there were fishermen in his own constituency and wondered whether he wanted to create problem in his own backyard.
"We could understand if he was an MLA from an urban constituency, but being from this area he should have been pragmatic," Gaonkar said.
Local Panch, Sagar Naik who hails from the fishing community, also supported the move and opposed the minister's intention to cut subsidy.
A local, Eknath Govekar questioned how comunidade allowed constructions to come up in forest and eco-sensitive zones.
He pointed to a house built near the panchayat office in Assagao and vowed to take legal action against the comunidade and the panchayat.
The sarpanch said that the issue pertained to comunidade and there was no point in discussing it in panchayat.
Owen Braganza raised the issue of the post office which was housed at the post man's residence, inconveniencing the locals and suggested to shift it to the panchayat building. The sarpanch promised to shift the post office to the panchayat building before the next gram sabha.
The sarpanch suggested changing the name of the panchayat from Assagao Panchayat to Assagao-Badem Panchayat, which was accepted by the gram
sabha members.
