CANACONA
After several unsuccessful attempts in the last 40 years, Poinguinim's Potkem sports ground will be finally taken up for development at a cost of Rs 3 crores sanctioned from Tribal Welfare Funds.
In a meeting convened by Poinguinim Grounds Committee recently, in the presence of Dy Speaker and Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes and Poinguinim Sarpanch Jagdish Gaonkar and others, Committee Chairman Pravir Bhandari informed that Rs 3-crore funds sanction order was received from the government, and accordingly a plan was being prepared to enable the commencement of ground developmental works.
Incidentally, government has sanctioned Rs 3 cr each from the Tribal Welfare Funds for the development of Potkem Grounds and beautification of Shri Betal Devasthan, both in Poinguinim village panchayat areas.
Tribal Welfare Department is however routing the expenses through SAG for the Potkem grounds, who alongwith panchayat body will prepare an estimate and accordingly float the tender.
Dy Speaker Fernandes assured to float the tender with the active cooperation of SAG and commence the works quickly.
Incidentally, after villagers marked a area at Potkem for the children to play, the than Poinguinim MLA Jagdish Acharya had for the first time in 1987 made attempts to develop it as sports ground. During the tenure of Ramesh Tawadkar as Sports minister in 2012-2017, even a foundation stone was laid at Potkem for an indoor sports complex at an cost of approx Rs 23 cr, meant for the National games. However, following the formation of new BJP government in 2017 new sports minister Babu Azgaonkar scrapped the tender blaming land ownership issues.
Bugged at frequent failures to develop the ground for village youths, newly elected panchayat body in the year 2017 took it as a challenge, and formed a special grounds committee to pursue the grounds issue. The committee successfully got the land award complete amalgamating the two lajd survey nos. 88/4-A and 92/7-D for an area of 20,625 sqm and approached Sports Authority of Goa for ground development.
However, after SAG asked to transfer land in their possession, Poinguinim panchayat determined to keep the land for future posterity of the village, backed out and instead moved a proposal for Tribal Welfare Funds, which are recently approved.
Tribal Welfare Department will however move the funds through SAG who in turn in coordination with the the local body will carry out the ground development, but the ground and land ownership will remain with the local body, informed Bhandari.
Several speakers sought to blame the former sports minister Ramesh Tawadkar who inspite being from the village could not develop the only village sports ground.
Venkatray Naik, Bipin Prabhudessai, Ajit Poinguinkar, Subhash Mahale, Damodar Shenvi, Satish Poinguinkar, were some of members who spoke on the occasion.
In a meeting convened by Poinguinim Grounds Committee recently, in the presence of Dy Speaker and Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes and Poinguinim Sarpanch Jagdish Gaonkar and others, Committee Chairman Pravir Bhandari informed that Rs 3-crore funds sanction order was received from the government, and accordingly a plan was being prepared to enable the commencement of ground developmental works.
Incidentally, government has sanctioned Rs 3 cr each from the Tribal Welfare Funds for the development of Potkem Grounds and beautification of Shri Betal Devasthan, both in Poinguinim village panchayat areas.
Tribal Welfare Department is however routing the expenses through SAG for the Potkem grounds, who alongwith panchayat body will prepare an estimate and accordingly float the tender.
Dy Speaker Fernandes assured to float the tender with the active cooperation of SAG and commence the works quickly.
Incidentally, after villagers marked a area at Potkem for the children to play, the than Poinguinim MLA Jagdish Acharya had for the first time in 1987 made attempts to develop it as sports ground. During the tenure of Ramesh Tawadkar as Sports minister in 2012-2017, even a foundation stone was laid at Potkem for an indoor sports complex at an cost of approx Rs 23 cr, meant for the National games. However, following the formation of new BJP government in 2017 new sports minister Babu Azgaonkar scrapped the tender blaming land ownership issues.
Bugged at frequent failures to develop the ground for village youths, newly elected panchayat body in the year 2017 took it as a challenge, and formed a special grounds committee to pursue the grounds issue. The committee successfully got the land award complete amalgamating the two lajd survey nos. 88/4-A and 92/7-D for an area of 20,625 sqm and approached Sports Authority of Goa for ground development.
However, after SAG asked to transfer land in their possession, Poinguinim panchayat determined to keep the land for future posterity of the village, backed out and instead moved a proposal for Tribal Welfare Funds, which are recently approved.
Tribal Welfare Department will however move the funds through SAG who in turn in coordination with the the local body will carry out the ground development, but the ground and land ownership will remain with the local body, informed Bhandari.
Several speakers sought to blame the former sports minister Ramesh Tawadkar who inspite being from the village could not develop the only village sports ground.
Venkatray Naik, Bipin Prabhudessai, Ajit Poinguinkar, Subhash Mahale, Damodar Shenvi, Satish Poinguinkar, were some of members who spoke on the occasion.
