Betalbatim gram sabha discusses issue of power cuts

Margao: The gram sabha of Betalbatim, on Sunday discussed  the issues of frequent power outgages and hotels in the village.

The villagers participating in the meeting called on the panchayat to resolve the several issues being faced by them.

“Even after the maintenance shutdown, there has been power disruptions, and many appliances have been damaged due to the frequent power fluctuations, which have also left the BSNL lines hardly functional,” said gram sabha member Agnelo Leitao while another member Joaquim Faleiro said that the power issue is a major problem and suggested underground power cabling as a solution.

Sarpanch Anthony Fernandes, who chaired the meeting in the presence of the village secretary and panch members, said that they have been informed of underground power cabling work being taken up by the government in a couple of months.

He also said he would write to the electricity department and try to bring a department engineer to the village to resolve the power issue.

Gram sabha members also grilled the panchayat body over the issue of hotels in the village.

During an earlier gram sabha, the members had called for the inspection of all the hotels in the village to check for discrepancies.

During the meeting, it was informed that inspection and reports of only some hotel premises had been completed, where discrepancies were observed.

The sarpanch said that he was waiting for the completion of inspection all the hotels before taking action.

It also came to light that one of the hotels in the village had applied for a construction licence from the panchayat but since it was not given in the 30-day period, the BDO issued an order to grant the licence.

The gram sabha members urged the panchayat body to take action, and revoke licences of the hotels that had erred.

The annual budget of the panchayat was also  passed during the meeting.

A gram sabha member Menino Cotta raised the issue of the village panchayat’s website, and  the secretary informed that a quotation has already been issued for updating the website with a plan to introduce a payment gateway to enable payment of taxes as well.