the goan I network
OLD GOA
Tempers ran high on several occasions at the Chimbel gram sabha on Sunday as locals cornered the panchayat authorities on several issues including grant of licences and occupancy certificates without verifying the ground reality, unauthorized transfer of house taxes at Indira Nagar and interference in functioning of the panchayat by husbands of lady panchas.
Initially, the locals raised the heat over the grant of licence to a project where despite the existence of houses, the area has been shown as open space by the builder.
"The biggest blunder was done by the panchayat authorities who failed to notice the existence of houses and granted licence to the builder. Due to this blunder, the house owners have now to knock the doors of the courts," said Tukaram Kunkolkar who sought to know whether the panchayat is going to bear the legal expenses.
Sarpanch Chandrakant Kunkolkar, however, said since the panchayat has already served licence revocation notice to the builder, the locals should not raise the issue over and over again.
Not to budge, the locals questioned the sarpanch whether he was aware of existence of a Hindu crematorium in the property. It was only after Kunkolkar admitted that there existed a crematorium did the frayed tempers cool down.
The locals then came down heavily on the panchayat for issuing occupancy certificate to a five-starred hotel, linked to a current minister, without completion of the project.
"Why are the authorities acting blind," John Lobo questioned and demanded re-inspection of the project along with the villagers so that the ground reality is exposed. Lobo also demanded that the occupancy certificate granted should be revoked.
It was only after constant pestering by the locals that sarpanch Kunkolkar agreed to conduct inspection of the project, the date of which would be intimated later.
The issue of transfer of house taxes in the 20-point programme locality at Indira Nagar was also raised by Ravindra Chopdekar who condemned the panchayat authorities for such an act.
"The government provided plots to landless people to build houses here, but now the original beneficiaries have illegally sold their plots to potential buyers and these buyers have got the house taxes transferred in their name with the help of the panchayat authorities," Chopdekar stated and demanded an inquiry into the matter as people are now building storeyed houses at Indira Nagar.
Chopdekar also came down heavily on husbands of lady panchas for attending the fortnightly meetings and also remaining present for site inspections, which should not happen.
"This amounts to interference in the functioning of the panchayat and if such interference continues, I will be forced to file disqualification plea against the lady panchas concerned," Chopdekar warned.
The issue of high flat transfer fee of Rs 10,000 was also raised, which the flat owners said was very high compared to other panchayats. "In the neighbouring panchayats, the fee ranges from Rs 1000-5000, but in Chimbel it is Rs 10,000," said one flat owner who requested the panchayat to bring it down to Rs 5000.
