Villagers want Usgao-Ganjem road repaired within a week

Threaten road blockade

Ponda: Demanding repair of the pothole-ridden Usgao-Ganjem road during the gram sabha held on Sunday, villagers  threatened to block the road if not repaired within a week.

The villagers blamed the panchayat for not following up the road issue with the PWD, and stated the road is in a pathetic condition for the last few months.

According to the villagers, the WRD is laying a water pipeline beside the road, connecting Ganjem barrage to Opa water works, and “for that purpose roads are being dug up for the last few months.”

They said they are not objecting to the pipeline laying work, but are upset that roads are not restored properly after pipeline-laying work.

An entire stretch of around 4 km of the Usgao-Ganjem road has developed potholes.

The villagers demanded urgent repair of the road and threatened to block the road.

During the gram sabha, issue of proposed road from Dhatwada to Takwada was discussed, wherein villagers objected to the the proposal, terming it as unnecessary.

The villagers claimed some houses will be affected due to the proposed road. At that juncture, sarpanch Asmita Gaude  assured the villagers to inquire into the matter and cancel the proposed road if not found necessary, and a resolution was taken to that effect.

An issue of a compound wall being built beside a road at Nanus was also discussed, and the sarpanch warned of strict action if the compound wall was found to be illegal.

Similarly, an issue of pending rent dues of a milk collection centre, operating from the  panchayat building was discussed; centre operator had demanded for waiving of the pending dues.

As per the discussion, in 2018, based on government directions VP had hiked the rent from Rs 200 per month to Rs 2,600 after doing valuation, and the milk centre operator was asked to pay the same. But the operator failed to pay the specified amount and the dues mounted ( over Rs 2 lakh).

The gram sabha passed a resolution to waive off the pending dues. At the beginning of the gram sabha, villagers expressed ire over non-implementation of the resolutions passed during the previous gram sabha, which also included demand for transfer of  panchayat secretary.

At that juncture, sarpanch made it clear to the villagers that any resolution that is not in compliance with the law is not taken into consideration.

This led to heated arguments between the villagers and panchayat members for nearly an hour.

The gram sabha was chaired by the sarpanch, and was monitored by secretary Prasad Shet.

Villagers ‘upset’

Ponda: As per the available information, villagers of Usgao had submitted around 27 questions in a joint letter signed by over 100 people, related to issues affecting them.

However, the said issues were not allowed to be  discussed at the gram sabha by the sarpanch claiming that a letter was submitted to  panchayat, mentioning some “baseless questions,” by a resident, by forging signatures of a section of people.

At this point, the villagers tried to convince the sarpanch that the questions were genuine but sarpanch concluded the gram sabha abruptly. 

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