the goan I network
MARGAO
In an interesting development, the Velim panchayat has scrapped the toll collection on vehicles visiting the Cutbona fishing jetty, 18 days after the Panchayat-shortlisted bidder had started levying toll on the vehicles.
The panchayat decision assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the issue raised on the floor of the House in the just concluded Assembly session, wherein Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had promised to direct the Crime Branch to investigate the toll collection.
The Velim panchayat at the meeting, however, has got the toll collection scrapped, after some of the panchayat members had raised eyebrows over the criteria adopted by the panchayat to fix the
toll rates.
Sarpanch Savio D’Silva, however, said the panchayat decided to scrap the toll at the Cutbona fishing jetty after queries were raised in certain quarters that the panchayat started the toll without approval from the Director of Panchayats.
“If that is the case, the panchayat will take a fresh decision on levying toll on vehicles visiting the Cutbona fishing jetty and send the proposal to the Director of Panchayats for necessary permission. Tomorrow, the panchayat and the villagers should not blame the sarpanch for abandoning a rich source of revenue for the panchayat body,”
Savio said.
Sources in the know said that the Crime Branch had started a preliminary inquiry into the panchayat’s levy of toll and had even called the Velim sarpanch in connection with the inquiry.
While Sarpanch Savio contended that the panchayat is within its powers to levy toll on the vehicles visiting the jetty, some of the panch members, however, had questioned the criteria adopted by the panchayat vis-Ã -vis the toll rates, with a couple of panchas questioning how the panchayat had arrived at the toll rate.
The Goan understands that the contractor shortlisted by the panchayat to collect the toll had in fact collected an amount of Rs 30,000 from the vehicles visiting the Cutbona fishing jetty during the last
18 days.
Dozens of outstation vehicles line up on the jetty road every day, more so during the peak fishing season when the fishing boats return to the jetty with tons of fish. The question that has been left unanswered is whether the panchayat is empowered to levy toll on the vehicles entering the fishing jetty, which has been recently taken over by the Fisheries
department.
