Velim p’yat scraps toll collection on vehicles at Cutbona jetty

| AUGUST 21, 2018, 11:57 PM IST
Velim p’yat scraps toll collection on vehicles at Cutbona jetty

the goan I network

MARGAO

In an interesting development, the Velim panchayat has scrapped the  toll collection on vehicles visiting the Cutbona fishing jetty, 18 days  after the Panchayat-shortlisted bidder had started levying toll on the  vehicles.

The panchayat decision assumes significance and comes  against the backdrop of the issue raised on the floor of the House in  the just concluded Assembly session, wherein Chief Minister Manohar  Parrikar had promised to direct the Crime Branch to investigate the toll  collection.

The Velim panchayat at the meeting, however, has got the toll  collection scrapped, after some of the panchayat members had raised  eyebrows over the criteria adopted by the panchayat to fix the 

toll  rates.

Sarpanch Savio D’Silva, however, said the panchayat decided to  scrap the toll at the Cutbona fishing jetty after queries were raised  in certain quarters that the panchayat started the toll without approval  from the Director of Panchayats. 

“If that is the case, the panchayat  will take a fresh decision on levying toll on vehicles visiting the  Cutbona fishing jetty and send the proposal to the Director of  Panchayats for necessary permission. Tomorrow, the panchayat and the  villagers should not blame the sarpanch for abandoning a rich source of  revenue for the panchayat body,” 

Savio said.

Sources in the know said  that the Crime Branch had started a preliminary inquiry into the panchayat’s levy of toll and had even called the Velim sarpanch in  connection with the inquiry.

While Sarpanch Savio contended that the panchayat is within its powers to levy toll on the vehicles visiting the  jetty, some of the panch members, however, had questioned the criteria  adopted by the panchayat vis-à-vis the toll rates, with a couple of panchas questioning how the panchayat had arrived at the toll rate.

The  Goan understands that the contractor shortlisted by the panchayat to  collect the toll had in fact collected an amount of Rs 30,000 from the  vehicles visiting the Cutbona fishing jetty during the last 

18 days.

Dozens  of outstation vehicles line up on the jetty road every day, more so  during the peak fishing season when the fishing boats return to the  jetty with tons of fish. The question that has been left unanswered is  whether the panchayat is empowered to levy toll on the vehicles entering  the fishing jetty, which has been recently taken over by the Fisheries  

department.

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