By Special Correspondent.
On Sunday, 07thof 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.