Colva panchayat's plans to fudge records foiled

PANAJI: Former power minister AleixoSequeira and Colva village panchayat are locked in a bitter battle over granting of an occupancy certificate to a hotel owned by Sequeira.
Based on a complaint lodged by Sequeira, the vigilance department's anti-corruption branch (ACB) on Wednesday raided Colva panchayat office and seized the register in which the panchayat records the minutes of its meeting.ACB found that the page on which the minutes of a special meeting called on Wednesday to discuss the issue of occupancy to Sequeira's hotel was signed by some panchas, but the minutes had not been recorded. A large gap had been left in the space meant to record the minutes.
An ACB officer said panchayat secretary Joaquim Rodrigues left the blank space on the page intending to manipulate the records.
The granting of occupancy to Sequeira's hotel is pending before Colva panchayat for over a year. Sequeira had referred this to the block development officer (BDO) and ACB officials said that in view of the matter's hearing at BDO office, the panchayat had called the special meeting to discuss this issue.
Sources said the panchayat members who had signed on the page planned to enter the resolution on the book based on the decision taken by the BDO.
Not all Colva panchas had signed on the minutes page, as some were absent and others did not sign.
Immediately after the meeting some panchas close to Nuvem MLA Francisco 'Mickky' Pacheco informed Sequeira about the gaps left in the register. The ruling group of Colva panchayat owes allegiance to Benaulim MLA Caetano 'Caitu' Silva, who visited the ACB office in Panaji on Thursday.
Speaking to TOI, ACB SP Bosco George said, "We will conduct an inquiry and we will submit the report to the government to take necessary action against the secretary for not maintaining proper records."
He also said that after cancelling the gap on the register they have handed over the documents to the panchayat.
The hearing of the matter at the BDO has been postponed as Colva panchayat sought more time to reply. tnn