MARGAO:  Commotion erupted over the issue of incomplete  market project at the Chinchinim  gram sabha, held on Sunday.

While one  group claimed that  the project is lying incomplete since the last  ten years, and  hence  the  very purpose of  acquiring the  land has been defeated, and therefore  it  has to be  changed  to  sport complex, other group demanded that  with the help of  new MLA, Mr Benjamin D’Silva  the market complex  can be  completed in the next two years.  

The sarpanch and all the elected members were in quandary as to how to arrive at the solution.   

The villagers, who were seen literally charging at each other over the issue, later calmed down. Apparently, the issue remained undecided.

The villagers resolved to write and demand a permanent panchayat secretary to avoid confusion, as witnessed on Sunday while reading out and confirming the old minutes.

"We demand a permanent panchayat  secretary.  Every   gram sabha we see  new secretary and hence  the writing of  minutes  get badly affected and  no one  takes the responsibility. If the government  is not  appointing a permanent  panchayat  secretary, we will lock the panchayat office and  raise our  protest,’’ voiced Mr Savio Lopes, Mr  C  Leitao,  Mr Neves  Rebello,  Mr Ajit Kamat  and  few others.

These  villagers  urged the  local MLA, Mr  D’Silva who was present for the meeting to solve the problem.   The panchayat secretary was seen fumbling  while conducting the  gram  sabha as the swelling  crowd  turning  vociferous. It was resolved that panchayat should  allow  both — Catholics and  Hindus to have  minimum eight days religious programmes --- Christmas  and  Ganesh festival -  at the  panchayat  garden, after the topic was debated for some time.  

Though the issue seemed taking a communal turn, the elected body and few elders of the village cleverly solved it taking the resolution to allow both the communities to hold programmes.

The issue of  garbage  also  consumed  lot of time. Having no garbage disposal site, few  of the villagers tried to  praise a villager, Mr Benny D Costa, for having collecting the plastic from the village, but few  neighbours of  Mr D’Costa complained that  he did not provide the toilets to the 50-odd  plastic collectors who stay at the spot.

"They are staying in an unhygienic condition and creating nuisance in the locality,’’ stated Mr Renvick  Pereira.

Mr  D’Costa, however,  disagreed. The sarpanch, Mr Royan E Viegas assured the locals that the panchayat will conduct an  inspection of the area.

Few  villagers pointed out that  the disposal of  garbage is a major concern given the fact that none of the panchayat members is willing to accept the waste in their backyard, adding the  issue  needs to be solved at the governmental level.

The villagers demanded to read out the audit report as there were alleged irregularities pointed out by the auditors and added that then only they would approve the annual budget.

They passed the supplementary budget till the annual budget is passed in the next gram sabha.

The local MLA, Mr D’Silva, however, stated that he will speak to the  officials of the GSIDC with  regard to the market complex and  do the needful.

Mr D’Silva also  stated that the Chief Minister,  Mr Manohar Parrikar, has assured  two garbage treatment plants one in North and another in South and added that  the consultants have been appointed to study the technicalities of the projects.   

The MLA also promised that in next  15 days a  full time secretary would be appointed for the panchayat.