OLD GOA
The villagers also gave an ultimatum of two days to the panchayat secretary to act on the resolutions, failing which the locals will be forced to agitate on a bigger scale.
It may be recalled that three weeks back, the villagers had passed resolutions urging the panchayat to act on the controversial activities done by a tenant and a builder. But, till date, the panchayat has failed to serve notices to the builder as well as the tenant, which infuriated the villagers.
A delegation of about 20 locals went to the panchayat office in the morning but found the sarpanch and the secretary missing. It was only after noon that secretary Hanumant Borkar arrived, after finishing his work in the BDO’s office and had to face a barrage of questions from the villagers who questioned the lethargy in acting on the resolutions.
Borkar tried to reason that he was pre-occupied with the delimitation exercise which prevented him in completing the formalities of serving notices to the builder and the tenant. “Give me two days time and the notices will be served,” Borkar assured.
Later, speaking to the media, Arturo D’Souza said the panchayat authorities are buying time as they are well aware that in the next few days, the code of conduct will come into force. “Then, they will say that they cannot take action,” D’Souza stated and chided the authorities for playing games with the villagers. “The current panchayat is responsible for the Bondvoll mess,” he informed while stating that action should come from this body itself.
