MAPUSA
Amidst protests against the panchayat’s inability to act against a mega project in the village, Camurlim Sarpanch Pandurang Khorjuvenkar and the ruling panchayat members walked out of the gram sabha ending the meeting abruptly.
However, the sarpanch later told The Goan that he ended the gram sabha after completing the agenda.
Chaotic scenes prevailed at the gram sabha meeting on Sunday with villagers taking the panchayat body to task for failing to keep its assurance to stop the mega project and conduct a site inspection of the project. Interestingly, the BDO observer who is deputed for the gram sabha meeting was not present.
Several locals blamed the panchayat body for not honouring public sentiments but were dancing to the tunes of the builder lobby.
“In the last gram sabha it was resolved to stop the ongoing construction work of the mega project in the village and to also conduct an inspection at the site. The sarpanch had publicly assured to honour the commitment given to us at the gram sabha. But there was neither a stop order nor a site inspection. This clearly shows that the panchayat body is doing the bidding of the developers,” alleged Sanjay Vaigankar, a resident of the village.
Former sarpanch Sharad Gad also slammed the sarpanch and the panchayat body for ignoring the public and running away from the gram sabha.
Defending his action, the Sarpanch said that he ended the meeting because there was a proposal from just one person which was discussed.
He also said that the panchayat had objected to the mega project but the project proponent has brought a stay on the panchayat’s objection from the directorate of panchayat.
