Raia villagers and the sarpance traded accusations and nearly blows as the gram sabha was marred with acrimonious scenes on Sunday.

The meeting saw clashes between the sarpanch, Mr S Gomes, and the gram sabha throughout the meeting, that culminated with the members almost physically attacking him and the secretary, for not conducting the business of the gram sabha in the proper fashion. 

"Don't try to make issues out of non-issues. If you are sincerely interested in the welfare of the village, I invite you to join hands with the panchayat, instead of criticizing the well-intended moves of the panchayat,"  sarpance, Savio Gomes urged gram sabha members.

Matters nearly came to blows when the sarpanch postponed all correspondence of the members to the next gram sabha in December.  “You may put 8-10 questions, but I may only answer only one. You cannot insist me to answer all 10 questions”, he said.

Villagers accused the sarpanch of disrespecting the gram sabha. Clashes between villagers and panchayat representatives are becoming increasingly common as citizens become more vigilant to the deeds (or misdeeds) of the elected representatives. However, some elements take advantage of this for personal and political gains.