Lincoln Fernandes, Journalist, and Member,
Village Development Committee, Village Panchayat of Chandor-Cavorim, Chandor, Salcete, Goa - 403714 Mob: 9923417804 Landline: 0832-2784784 Date: August 22, 2021 To, The Co-ordinator Goanet [email protected] Dear Friends, Kindly publish/post/broadcast the following report in your various media outlets and social media feeds as it concerns a matter of considerable public importance. *Sub: Chandor Sarpanch Exposed Over His Bogus Construction Plan for the Village Market, Calls Police over a VDC Member Denouncing His Blocking of a Debate on the Issue. * Vigilant members of Chandor’s village development committee exposed the attempt of the sarpanch, Edward D’Silva, to palm off a bogus plan for the market as an official document. At a meeting of the VDC on Saturday, Lincoln Fernandes and Raymond D’Cruz questioned the sarpanch vociferously about the fake plan drawn up with the assistance of an engineer based in far-off Panjim. The panchayat has applied to the Rural Development Agency, according to D’Silva, to fund the project on the basis of the plan which he seems to have drawn up all by himself. In the meeting itself, he admitted that it was not a proper plan but could not explain why he had, therefore, put it on the agenda for serious consideration. When Lincoln Fernandes attempted to table a motion objecting to the fake plan, the sarpanch, as chairman of the VDC, refused to allow a discussion and terminated the meeting by walking towards the exit along with the other panchayat members and the secretary. Fernandes and Raymond D’Cruz protested vigorously at this, with Fernandes denouncing the illegality of the presiding officer walking out of a meeting without formally closing it. D’Silva phoned the police but they arrived only after he and the panchayat members had abandoned the meeting. Two policemen reached the venue as the participants were dispersing. They saw no reason to intervene when they were told by Fernandes that the sarpanch was obstructing an attempt to expose the panchayat's shady deeds. Chandor’s villagers are agitated over this brazen attempt to hoodwink them through a project which is likely to yield lakhs of rupees in underhand commissions. Apart from trying to impose a fake plan on the village, the panchayat also willfully ignored a gram sabha resolution of 24 November 2019, which specifies that no public toilets will be built touching or too close to the market. This followed the shameful act, a couple of months earlier, of the sarpanch silently creeping into the market in the dead of night with some labourers and personally overseeing the construction of a block of two toilets right in front of two houses touching the market, This was when the frenzy of the Open Defecation Free toilet scheme was at its peak in August-September 2019. The toilets were promptly demolished by unknown persons within a few days of being built. The police did not seem to think it necessary to investigate. A complaint to the police about the bogus construction plan, as well as to the Director of Panchayats and the Block Development Officer about the sarpanch’s misconduct during the VDC meeting are on the anvil. A motion of censure and reprimand against the sarpanch and the panchayat for contemptuously defying a gram sabha resolution, as well as offering a fake document as an official one, will be placed at the next gram sabha and VDC meetings. The behavior of the panchayat secretary in abetting the attempted fraud is also being reported to the DOP and the BDO. Thanking you, Sincerely Lincoln Fernandes Encl: Copy of motion tabled before the VDC, VP, Chandor-Cavorim
