Margao: The Carmona gram sabha on Sunday opposed any move to privatise the state’s power distribution network. It also passed resolutions demanding the scrapping of TCP section 39A and the withdrawal of a recent notification proposing to classify protected land in the village under the Non-Developable Area (NDA).
Sarpanch Sandra Martins said that the panchayat had received a letter from Tata Power seeking its NOC and consent.
“This seems to be a move to privatise the electricity network in the state. As far as I understand, Tata Power has not given details, so we appeal to the panchayat to write back to them as well as the department stating that we object to this move,” said gram sabha member Anton Silva.
Resource person Avinash Tavares also cautioned against the move.
“Currently the distribution network is maintained by the electricity department and they have spent crores on improving the infrastructure. Now private parties want to take over this network, it will lead to an increase in our bills. It has to be opposed because we don’t have a dense connection like in Mumbai,” said Tavares.
The gram sabha thereafter passed a resolution opposing the move to privatise power distribution.
Benaulim AAP MLA Venzy Viegas urged residents to help achieve the target of submitting 5,000 objections by the end of the month to the department concerned against Section 39A of the Goa Town and Country Planning Act, 1974.
A notification proposing to classify mainly paddy fields, khazans and waterbodies, which are already protected under the Non-Development Zone (NDZ), as Non-Developable Area (NDA) was also discussed. In their resolution, gram sabha members stated that there was no definition of the term. They said that the panchayat was currently completing its spatial planning exercise and carrying capacity study.
On garbage management, Martins said that there was a lack of sufficient funds while flagging dumping of unsegregated waste by tenants. He said there was little or no cooperation from villagers in informing the panchayat whether they were keeping tenants.
“We have a plan and I wanted to execute it in a small village. On the 8th we will have a meeting on the proposal, which should be started from August 1. It will include door-to-door collection with the help of panch members, and under CSR we will prepare a model for the collection of sanitary, dry and wet waste. I can then propose this model in the Assembly in September and take it forward,” said Viegas.
