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Tri Continental Film Festival 2008 July 25 - 30, 2008 Goa, India http://www.moviesgoa.org/page/tri_continental/ http://www.moviesgoa.org/tricon/schedule_2008.pdf --------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Samir Umarye BICHOLIM JULY 28: The pilgao Gram Sabha today witnessed an uproar over the panchayat's inability to stop the illegal mining activities in the panchayat and some abusive words by the people added fuel to the fire. Today the gram sabha was believed to see some heated discussion over the issue of mining as the panch members had earlier expressed that the authorities were not supporting them in the anti-mining agitations. When the issue of mining was raised the people demanded to know as to how many people have been employed by the company since 2004. They also highlighted the problems of pollution and damage done to fields due to mining. Several villagers demanded to revoke the license given to the company. People told about some of the illegal work carried out by the company including construction of a new jetty, loading point and a weighing bridge in the panchayat. Panch, Ajay Parab in his reply told that the company has failed in giving employment the villagers from Pilgao since last many years. On the issue of illegal mining in the area Parab told that the authorities are not supporting them and they are made to run from polar to the post. "We approached every authority and complained against the illegal mining activities in our panchayat but no one is ready to take our complaint." Parab told the gram sabha. At this point some villagers accused few panchas for not supporting the issue. Enraged by the comments panch, Mahadev Vengurlekar tried to defend his position and told some of the villagers to sit down. A villager in a fit of anger orally abused the panch and the people in general sought to know as to what right Vengurlekar has in asking the villagers to keep quite. "The meeting is chaired by the sarpanch and the panch has no right to stop someone from speaking" Deelip Gawas and others said. The crowd was pacified when the sarpanch, Sangeeta Dhatkar told the gathering not to use slag language in the hall. Later, it was unanimously resolved to stop a work where illegal work is being carried out by the mining company. The topic of formalities for issue of Income certificate from the secretary also came up for the meeting. The villagers charged the panchayat and the secretary for making it compulsory for everyone to get signature from the respective panch member for getting the Income certificate when there is no such rule. "As per the rule issuing of the Income certificate is the sole right of the secretary and the sarpanch has to sign on it" the villagers told adding "now the people have to search the panch and if the panch is not in good terms with the person he denies to sign." In this respect with the demand from the villagers it was resolved to cancel the extra formality and go as per the law. Issue of a pending road from Sarmanas to Tarwada also came up for discussion and the villagers charged that the proposal is pending since 1999. "We had reserved about 3 lakh for the work but later no one looked into the matter." an ex-panch disclosed. The people also demanded to review the Below Poverty Line list and told that several names wrongly included in the list. At the end of the meeting the people got furious when a panch disclosed that the meeting has come to an end. The people demanded that they would not leave the hall till a resolution that was wrongly written during 2006-07 be re- written. Accordingly, the secretary wrote the resolution about the expenditure which was then opposed by the villagers. Indrayani Usapkar, Mahadev Vengurlekar, Ajay Parab, Satish Gimonkar , Sangeeta Dhatkar, and Dulo Bhamaikar were present for the meeting while Sandesh Govekar failed to attend the meeting.