Benaulim forum refutes Minister’s allegations of being anti-people

NT NETWORK
Posted on 2008-09-01
MARGAO - The convenor of Benaulim Villagers’ Action Committee, Mr Seby Fernandes on Sunday strongly condemned the Panchayat Minister, Mr Manohar Azgaonkar’s statement in a section of the press as they being anti-people.
Mr Fernandes said that Mr Azgaonkar will do well to explain the action of panchayat secretaries, who mysteriously go on sick leave on the eve of the gram sabhas and are subsequently seen attending duty at the Block Development Office BDO in the respective taluka headquarters. 
Mr Fernandes asked Mr Azgaonkar to explain to the people as to what action he has taken against the panchayat secretary, Mr Subodh Prabhu, who he said deliberately sat on a construction proposal file, attended hearings and pronouncement of orders in the office of the deputy director panchayats and kept the panchayat in the dark about it, thereby facilitating the builder to get construction license under the ‘deeming’ clause which is abuse of office.
He said that the Benaulim villagers have been peacefully agitating for their rights for the past five months and the BVAC and the people of Benaulim are demanding revocation of construction licenses through proper procedure. 
“We challenge Mr Azgaonkar to substantiate his statement regarding harassment to any of the panchayat staff by holding a people’s darbar at the panchayat  or convening a special gram sabha meeting through the panchayat.  We promise to provide evidence wherein one of the panchayat staff has confessed to pressure from the higher authorities to give false statements/reports against the villagers of Benaulim,” he said.
Further he added that if Mr Azgaonkar is so clean and sincere on development, he should provide a honest, full-time panchayat secretary to Benaulim as a first step.  Due action should be initiated against the panchayat body, which has consistently failed to hold gram sabha meetings as required under the law,
he said. 
He also demanded that action must be initiated on the sarpanch of Benaulim who is yet to conduct a single fortnightly meeting of the panchayat body from the time she was elected as sarpanch, in contravention of the law and added that the Panchayat Minister must initiate action against the director of panchayats, deputy director of panchayats south and the BDO of Salcette, who have been sitting on a petition filed on May 12, 2008 under Section 200 of the Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 for dissolution of the panchayat on grounds of persistent default in the performance of duties.
In a statement Mr Fernandes further said “We also challenge Mr Azgaonkar and the Chief Minister (who is on record stating that licences can be revoked if construction rules and regulations are found to be violated) to visit Benaulim with his team from the town and country planning department,  PWD, BDO, the directorate of panchayats and the Deputy Collector” and added that the villagers will be too happy to point out the violations and illegalities to the authorities and to the media.  B