http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=02157
Saligao administrator unable to face gram sabha? NT News Service Mapusa, Feb 14 Is the Saligao panchayat Administrator, Ms Mary Fernandes incapable of facing the gram sabha . It seems so if one goes by the letter written by her to the Bardez BDO. As per the gram sabha rules, even the present administrators, who are the erstwhile sarpanchas of the village panchayat, ought to conduct the routine gram sabhas based on the directives of the BDO. A letter in this regard was sent to the Saligao panchayat Administrator on February 5 by the Bardez BDO. However, the Administrator acting swiftly, replied to the BDO on February 8 that she is unable to preside over the gram sabha slated for February 25. The reasons given by her are that being a lady she is afraid of facing the crowd and there is no panchayat body to assist her. When this correspondent inquired with the BDO, the officials wondered as to how the said administrator was running the panchayat all these years if she was afraid to face the public. Was she being remote controlled by politicians and her panch members? People claim that that this is enough proof to show that the panchayats have reached their lowest level and wonder how could a village prosper in this scenario. Lamenting on the sorry state of affairs of his own panchayat, a villager of Saligao, Brig (Retd) Ian Da Costa felt that the politicians, government and people are to be blamed for this sorry state of affairs of panchayats. ``Politicians manipulate panchayats for their personnal welfare, the government has done the wrong thing by appointing sarpanchas as administrators, as we can now see the efficiency of these sarpanchas and the people do not verify the credentials of the candidate at the time of elections," he said. "Let this be an eye opener. If this continues we will not make any progress. So let us elect good and educated candidates," he opined. For the Saligao panchayat this is rather an unusual situation, wherein in presence of the administrator the gram sabha will be presided over by the panchayat secretary, Mr Narvekar. -- FN M: 0091 9822122436 P: +91-832-240-9490 (after 1300IST please) http://fn.goa-india.org http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com Community Radio in India list: http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/cr-india _______________________________________________ Saligao 403511 website http://saligao.goa-india.org Saligaonet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goacom.org/mailman/listinfo/saligaonet
