‘Colva panchayat wants to discontinue leases for ghar’

Colva: Colva panchayat is not in favour of continuing the perpetual leases signed with certain persons to carry out commercial activity in the panchayat ghar and wants to terminate the lease deeds, the panchayat stated in its reply to the showcause notice issued by the South Goa collector.
Last month, the district collector Ajit Roy issued a showcause notice to the Colva panchayat seeking reason why the land allotted to the local civic body to build a panchayat ghar should not be reverted to the state government.
According to the notice, 500sqm land belonging to the tourism department was given to the local body for construction of a panchayat ghar in 1992.
In 2013, the tourism department had noticed that commercial activities were permitted in the premises and issued a notice to the panchayat asking them to stop the same. But despite several reminders, the notices were ignored.
In August, this year, the department took the matter to the collector.
The collector asked the panchayat secretary to showcause within 30 days.
The panchayat submitted that an agreement of perpetual lease was signed temporarily with certain persons for generation of funds to build the premises for panchayat ghar, but control and possession of the premises was always with the local body.
The reply to the showcause notice also states that no rights of premises were sold or agreed to be sold and no ownership right was transferred by the panchayat. The agreement of lease was executed in 2000 by the then elected body and secretary.