By Special
Correspondent.
On Sunday, 07th
of this month, a special Gram Sabah was held in Candolim in the morning, attended
by around one hundred villagers. Against
the logic of the necessity of the
presence of the required quorum of one third of the total number of voters, the
Meet started without even giving the grace time. At starting point only A. Veronica
Fernandes fired a salvo by asking the Chair “how and who authorized Agnel
Fernandes the defeated MLA of Calangute constituency hailing from Candolim, to occupy the seat at the dais along with the
other Panch Members? What was his role
at the dais when he has no authority to be among the Panch Members when he is
nobody in the Panchayat and who authorized him to sit there?” This question came because A. Veronica found
Agnel Fernandes occupying the Seat at the dais among the Panch Members. Stunned
with a total silence in the Hall for a few moments, the Sarpanch Ms Sandra got
up and replied thus: “ Along with Agnel Fernandes, the Panchayat has also
requested other ex Sarpanchas for this important meeting" and one of them was
Tomazinho Cardoso who addressed the Meet on the request of the Panchayat.
Though the agenda of
the Meeting was PDA that is whether the Candolim villagers want PDA or Not, yet
the other topics were also raised by the attendees. Jose Marie Vaz raised the issue of the
inefficiency of the Sarpanch to handle the grievances of the villagers and
instead she 5 times sent him to Agnel Fernandes when Agnel is nobody in the
Panchayat. From here it looks Sarpanch
and other Panchas are impotent making Agnel Fernandes to control the affairs of
the Panchayat thru remote control. This
system had to be stopped and Agnel must accept the fact that officially he is nobody in the village, he
does not represent the villagers in anything.
Tomazinho Cardoso surprisingly
re-surfacing in the Panchayat almost after 2 decades spoke in favour of retaining Panchayat as it
is. He said he finds something fishy in
bringing only the two villages Candolim and Calangute under the umbrella of PDA
while leaving intact the other costal and surrounding villages. He said
builders lobby will take control of the village land if Candolim is brought
under the control of PDA. In fact, all
the illegal and rampant constructios in Candolim started when Tomazinho Cardoso
ruled the village and later on when he handed over his Baton to his successor to do
more damage to the village under the Congress Umbrella. Who is responsible for the creation of
Ghanttianchi Araddy for the sake of their Votes? Who is responsible to license the top builders
to construct buildings even in the fields as it is being done in Saipem and
elsewhere? Is it not by the current
Panchayat authority remotely controlled by its Godfather? If Candolim is to be saved from the gulp of
non-Goans, Ghanttis and Migrant workers then all the guilty politicians should
be kicked out of their power. They know only to harass the locals on flimsy
ground.
Without even proper
approach roads and infrastructure as per the law, the Candolim Panchayat has
issued licences for big builders to build their empires. Candolim Panchayat without any proper planning
issued licences to build Settlements of Migrants thereby upsetting the
demographic structure not only of Candolim
but also of Goa. With the blessing of
the Panchayat, Candolim village is becoming like Judaism in Palestine. The
nuisance of big Hotel in Candolim at Pintos Vaddo, next to the Holy Cross Mandd,
because of the loud music it plays,
disturbs the peace in the whole area thereby denying peace to the students to
do their studies, sleep to the aged people at Azilo and commotion on the main
road next to this Hotel. This commotion
on the main public road happens because of the parking of the Hotel vehicles there. It was the duty of the Panchayat to check on
this before giving license to construct this Hotel. But Panchayat failed in this matter thus
putting the local interest into jeopardy. Those who voted this Panchayat must
be aware that they made a big mistake by electing this Panchayat that gives
priority for the big Hoteliers’ interest.
When voted, the
resolution was passed in favour of retaining Panchayat. Panchayat brought Tomazino Cardoso in a fishy
manner to speak in favour of Panchayat but Panchayat failed to bring somebody to
speak on good effects of PDA. When one
of the attendees Mickey Fernandes asked the Panchayat to describe and elaborate
the functions of the PDA, surprisingly there was no answer. When Mickey at one point of time asked the Panch
Member Fermino to stop answering to the audience when Sarpanch is there, the
Sarpanch said that she authorized Fermino to do so. Is it not ridiculous for the Sarpanch to
abdicate her responsibility when she is present in the House? If she is incapable to handle her
responsibility then she must resign gracefully. However,
as per the law, if any villager feels to oppose this resolution on sound
ground, he can file his complaint with the director of Panchayat within 30
days.
The way in an unplanned
manner with scant respect for ecology, rules and regulations the constructions
are allowed in Candolim by local Panchayat, the PDA if existed would never have
allowed.
