1 to 31st August 2014
Sarpanch Kavlekar Spearheading Kavlem Panchayat towards Progress
R
ajesh Narendra Kavlekar, the Sarpach of Kavlem Panchayat is a new
generation politician with a strong
desire to utilize the power in his hand to do
constructive work, which will benefit a large
section of the society.
When one speaks to him one can sense
the enthusiasm in his voice to experiment
and take on new challenges. In a special
interview with Ponda Scan Kavlekar talks
passionately about his Panchayat and his
very many plans to make it one of the best
Panchayats in Goa.
Tell us about your political journey.
I was elected Sarpanch of Kavlem
Panchayat in Feb 2002 and held the post
till Jan 2007. Till the new Panchayat body
was formed in May 2007 I was appointed
administrator of the Panchayat. I have also
been a Panch of the Panchayat for one term
i.e. from 19th May 2007 to 18th May 2012.
I was elected as Sarpanch of the present
Panchayat body on 28th May 2012 and am
holding the post since then.
What are the developmental works
that you have undertaken in your Panchayat ?
I and my colleagues at the Kavlem Panchayat are putting in consistent efforts to
come up with projects and developmental
works which will help the people of this
temple town. Fortunately, our MLA has
also been very supportive of us. We have
been able to do developmental work to the
tune of rupees nine crores as of now – 3
crores through PWD and 6 crores through
irrigation. In addition, I have done work
worth around ten lakhs in my ward – ward
number five and rupees 12 lakh worth of
developmental works in other wards of the
panchayat.
Your panchayat has taken up a unique
initiative to promote agriculture in the
area. We would like to know more about
this much talked about project.
Yes, we are in the process of building
a protection wall along the Kapileshwari
nullah to prevent waste and garbage from entering into the surrounding fields belonging
to around 150 farmers. This 12 Km nullah
emerges from Ponda City, passes through
Kavlem Panchayat and further merges into
the Zuari River at Bandora. The nullah is
highly polluted as all types of city waste
get dumped into it including medical waste.
Some people from Ponda have even attached
their septic tanks to the Nullah. All this water
used to enter the fields in the surrounding
area making it highly difficult for farmers
to take up any agricultural work. Farmers
working in these farms used to get hurt due
medical syringes and other hazardous wastes
that entered their fields. Due to all this over
1 lakh 10 thousand square meters of fertile
land belonging to around 150 farmers was
lying barren. After many deliberations and
brainstorming sessions we came up with
this solution of a protection wall on both
the sides of the nullah. The wall will prevent
the dirty water, waste and garbage from the
nullah from directly entering the farms. We
are sure this will bring the farmers back to
their fields. We are also promoting different
agriculture and horticulture related schemes
to attract younger generation which generally shies away from farming. The protection
wall work costing around 10 crores is in
final stages of its completion. Over seventy
percent of the work is already done, the wall
has almost reached near Shantadurga temple.
The remaining work will start immediately
post monsoons.
Give us an insight into your future
plans for the development of the panchayat.
Garbage and parking are two major prob-
lems which we intend to take up on priority.
We are going in for dustbin distribution
and door to door collection of garbage. The
ground work for the same like tendering etc.
has already been done. We want funds earmarked by the government for this purpose
to be released to \