With the Poinguinim Panchayat it’s not the Congress or the BJP, it’s about two self-centred leaders – Janardhan Bhandhari & Satish Painginkar. The other *panchas* in the panchayat are either illiterate or semi-literate or plain ignorant lambs to the slaughter.
Beyond scores of other unquestioned sins, these two are out to sell everything worth a cent or something beyond all labels of value for a convenient price tag. It’s just politics of convenience in a world blinded by the materialistic haze. The Poinguinim Panchayat cupboards hold nothing but skeletons of innumerable scandals. The Talathi and the Secretary are part of the brigade driven by unchecked greed. Well a CBI probe or even a few applications under RTI with due follow up should see the skeletons kicking out with some incredible stories. Powered by the anything-goes attitude, now the Poinguinim Panchayat has granted provisional NOC to Monark Private Limited a Delhi-based company to set up a golf course at Talpona. (Never mind the 9-hole golf course just across the Tapona river). Ironically, after granting the provisional NOC they are together quoted as saying along with Damodar Shenvi that if the big companies are beyond the regulations of CRZ then why not allow the locals too to set up their business within the CRZ zone. This same Damodar Shenvi has the audacity to make public comments after accepting donation from the Delhi guys – ostensibly for the Devalay. The bigger irony is that they continue to fool the people and have their way. For a project like a golf course with far-reaching implications the panchayat or rather Janardhan and Satish did not see the need for an otherwise mandatory Gram Sabha. They just satisfied themselves and said it was OK and looks like it IS the final word. The local panch Caetan Barreto at Galgibaga is quoted as having said that the golf course will mean a livelihood for many locals. On asked for confirmation of his views he flatly denies it. It is learnt that Janardhan and Satish travelled to New Delhi very recently. One can only speculate that it was not a mere jaunt or some type of honeymoon for the two. At Talpona, where illegal constructions are cropping like wild vegetation in the monsoons, work to set up another star resort are afoot with one Virendra Mohan Trehan and Hirachand Kavalchand Bafna having bought about 4,20,000 sq metres of thick natural forests under survey No 189/1. Besides one Jagdish P Khanna has also bought 29,585 square metres of forest land under survey No 189/1-B. It is also interesting to note that the communidade of Poinguinim has only 30,450 sq metres of land here under survey No 133/1 and 134/1 while 1,12,925 sq metres land here is shown against the name of six local people under survey Nos 131, 131/2, 156/0 and 157. “How did large chunks of this erstwhile communidade land get transferred to private interests?” asks an elderly resident of Talpona. Tony Martin
