LETTER NO. 3 below which was sent to Herald on 26/4/2010 and has not been
published for reasons best known to the Editor. Muzzling of Truth?
"The Panchayat Minister's case about insufficient funds to Panchayats in Goa
(Herald, 25/4/2010) seems unreasonable considering extravagence in
expenditures by these local bodies that have no proper annual development
plans in place.
Taking the case of Socorro Village Panchayat itelf, the Gram Sabha was
shocked to learn last week that the existing building of the Village
Panchayat built as lately as 1970 is being demolished to make way for a
rupees 2 crore project of the Goa Infrastructure Development Corporation
with provisions for 20 shops besides the office and community hall. This
wastage of public money takes place when several Village Panchayats in the
State do not have a decent office and community hall and Gram Sabha meetings
have to be convened outdoor under a tree or pandal. A Gram Sabha resolution
was slipped into the minutes somewhere in the year 2006 without it being on
the agenda of the meeting. Thereafter, protests from the people were
forwarded to the concerned department but there has been no action probably
because it enjoys the blessings of the local MLA. The existing Panchayat
hall was built at a cost of just 45,000 rupees and was the first indoor
badminton court in Goa which has been host to several State level badminton,
table tennis and chess tournaments even in the monsoon season. That was the
foresight of the then Sarpanch and the Panchayat Body. All that is now
required is a few lakhs of rupees to replace the roof, construct one or two
rooms and other maintenance. But instead, we have 2 crores of rupees being
wasted and which could have been used to build infrastructure for some needy
village.
Today, we have nothing but brokers and agents in Village Panchayats who look
for every opportunity to float tenders for construction. The benefits of
this is well known to the public. The Village Panchayats in Goa must be
rechristened as 'Contractor Panchayats'. The Minister for Panchayati Raj is
another added disaster to the already degraded Panchayati Raj system in the
State."
-Soter D'Souza
Socorro
- [Goanet] LACK OF FUNDING TO PANCHAYATS IN GOA? soter
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