How long should Chinchoncars wait for the powers that be to realise the long-pending dream of having a spacious Panchayat Ghar cum Sport Complex on the sprawling land acquired by the Chinchinim village panchayat over a decade and half ago?
As many as three MLAs, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Benjamin D’Silva and incumbent MLA Cruz Silva have represented Velim in the last 18 years, with former Minister Filipe Neri Rodrigues twice representing the constituency during this period. Incidentally, unlike incumbent MLA Cruz, who is part of the opposition group in the Assembly, both Filipe Neri and Benjamin have been part of the ruling dispensations during their respective tenures, but the project simply could not take off till date.
Consider this: The ambitious project could not see the light of day during the tenure of former Velim MLA Filipe Neri Rodrigues, during whose tenure the panchayat had acquired the land. Filipe Neri was a Minister, first in the Congress-led Digambar Kamat government and again a Minister in the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government, but the ground reality vis-à-vis the project remained unchanged.
Hopes were raised again around a decade ago following a change in political guard in Velim when Felipe Neri’s political opponent, then Independent MLA Benjamin D’Silva, was elected the Velim MLA in 2012. After the project was bogged in a bitter controversy over the nature of the project that should take shape on the acquired land, it however, somehow failed to take off during Benjamin’s tenure.
Incumbent Aam Aadmi Party Velim MLA Cruz Silva has promised to pursue the project with the Pramod Sawant-led BJP government, but questions are raised whether the BJP government will sanction the necessary funds, a whopping Rs 23 crore, as per the 2021 estimates to execute the project in Chinchinim.
The issue had an echo at the recently held gram sabha of the Chinchinim village panchayat chaired by Sarpanch Valentino Barretto. When members sought to know the status of the Panchayat Ghar-cum-Sports Complex in the village, the Sarpanch was blunt in replying the project is stuck up for want of funds to execute the same.
Valentino told The Goan that the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation (GSIDC) was scheduled to execute the project at a cost of Rs 23 crore. “Whenever we follow up the matter with GSIDC, we return home with the impression that the project could not take off for want of funds. The construction licence for the project had expired, but has been renewed again a year ago. Unless the project is taken up by the government, the licence may expire again.”
Valentino added: “We understand that it would cost the government huge money to execute the project. Hence, the government should take up the project phase-wise, beginning with the Panchayat Ghar.”
Post-gram sabha meeting, a panchayat delegation led by the Sarpanch called on senior GSIDC officials and handed over a memorandum with a plea to execute the project at the earliest, but the officials are believed to have made it clear that the agency can go ahead with the project only with a technical sanction from the government.
