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VP members 'boycott'Narvekar's meeting HERALD CORRESPONDENT PORVORIM, JAN 22 — When Health Minister and Aldona MLA Dayanand Narvekar went to attend a meeting at Umra in Salvador-do-Mundo, he was in for a surprise — none of the panchayat members attended the meeting. According to sources, Mr Narvekar had informed the Salvador-do-Mundo Panchayat that he would visit the village on January 19 to address the grievances of the villagers. However, none of seven panch members turned up at the Shremati Sunandabai Bandodker high school at Umra, the venue of the meeting, to welcome the minister. Bardez mamlatdar Mr Redkar, PWD Engineer Sanjay Raiker, ZP Member Gupesh Naik and panchayat secretary Ramesh Palni were, however, present on the occasion. The minister informed the villagers that work of hot-mixing the 11 km road from Quitula-Aldona to Salvador-do-Mundo will be taken up shortly at a cost of Rs 2 crore. He assured the villagers that the broadening and tarring of all the roads in the panchayat area will be done before the monsoons. He also mentioned that 4-arm, 3-arms and 2-arms street lights would be fitted at road-junctions in the villages. Mr Narvekar stated that a 650 cubic meter overhead tank would be constructed in the defence colony and added that, the visiting hours of doctors at the Sub-health Center at Salai would be increased, once vacancies of the doctors are filled up. The residents submitted a memorandum to the minister, highlighting the need to replace old electricity wires before the rains, chopping off branches of trees which obstructs traffic, digging of wells in the paddy fields and cleaning of nallahs. -- May your God be with you. Gabe Menezes. London, England