Irked Siolim-Marna locals seek relief from frequent outages

Mapusa: Following a demand from villagers, Siolim-Marna panchayat on Sunday decided to convene a special joint meeting with electricity officials over issue of power supply in the village. Frequent power cuts have left the villagers agitated and they are demanding a relief from the problem.

On Sunday, an ordinary gram sabha of the village panchayat was held, presided over by sarpanch Monali Pednekar along with panchayat secretary Subhash Kambli. The gram sabha witnessed a detailed discussion on various issues including the issue of outages.

At the outset, villagers expressed displeasure over lack of initiative in creating awareness on the scheduled gram sabha by the panchayat. They pointed out that people need to be made aware of the gram sabha for ensuring larger attendance of villagers.

They said that henceforth the panchayat should make announcement of any scheduled gram sabha through English and vernacular newspapers, besides making announcement in the village using loudspeaker and pasting notices at public spots. 

The demand of the villagers was accepted and sarpanch Monali Pednekar assured to do the needful in future.

When the proceedings started, a gram sabha member raised the issue of frequent power cuts in the village. The panchayat secretary replied that the panchayat had nothing to do with electricity supply and, following demands of the villagers, it was resolved to convene a joint meeting with electricity officials to discuss the issue.

Further, the panchayat secretary informed the villagers that the panchayat will soon commence door-to-door collection of garbage, including dry and wet.  He said that in this regard a tender was floated and it will be opened on July 17 and, subsequently, contractor will be appointed for garbage collection task. The villagers were requested to cooperate with the panchayat by handing over segregated waste when door-to-door collection commences.

“We will also distribute bins to every household in the village,” the secretary stated.

Raising issue of roadside kiosks, Amrut Agarwadekar said that the kiosks were causing obstruction to smooth flow of traffic.

 “These kiosks have encroached upon open space, while the panchayat was not getting any revenue from them, hence, the panchayat should carry out an inspection and take necessary action,” Agarwadekar stated.

Replying on the issue, the panchayat secretary informed that road safety committee has submitted a detailed report after inspection, which include various points for road safety and the same will be adopted by the panchayat.

Joaquim Barros, from road safety committee, said that “first the illegal kiosks should be given time to clear up the occupied area and, if not, action can be taken as per law.”

Another member said that “these kiosks are owned by locals and, hence, the panchayat should take that into consideration and arrange an alternative site for them before taking any action.”

Pandurang Dhargalkar said that “traffic congestion occurs at Marna junction in the morning hours due to labourers who assemble there and, hence, they need to be shifted to some other place.”