Constitutional bodies could come under scanner over failure of South Goa DPC to ready development plan for 2025-26

File photo of the South District Planning Committee meeting held on January 11, 2024 to prepare a district Development plan for the financial year 2024-25. No such meeting has taken place to finalise such a plan for 2025-26.

MARGAO

The failure of the South Goa District Planning Committee (DPC) to prepare a Consolidated District Development Plan for the financial year 2025–26 may soon bring several Constitutional bodies — including the Zilla Panchayat, village Panchayats, and Municipal Councils — under the scanner.

In its defence, the South Goa DPC may argue that it refrained from preparing the district plan for 2025-26 because the District Development Plan for 2024–25 continues to gather dust for want of government action for over a year now.

However, the moot question remains — even if the government has shown apathy and neglect toward the 2024–25 District Development Plan, can the Zilla Panchayats, village Panchayats, and Municipal bodies escape their statutory duty to prepare their respective annual development plans and submit them to the District Planning Committee for consolidation?

The answers to these crucial questions are found in the High Court judgment dated February 20, 2020, delivered in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the United Goans Foundation through its Secretary, Avinash Tavares.

A glance at the Court’s observations reveals that Section 238 of the Panchayat Raj Act, 1994, is unambiguous — it mandates that every Panchayat shall prepare each year a development plan and submit it to the Zilla Panchayat in the prescribed form and within the prescribed time. Similarly, every Zilla Panchayat must prepare each year a development plan for the district, incorporating the plans of all village Panchayats, and submit it to the District Planning Committee constituted under Section 239 of the same Act.

The Court also referred to Section 184F of the Goa Municipalities Act, 1968, which casts a similar duty upon every Municipal Council to prepare an annual development plan and submit it to the District Planning Committee constituted under Section 239 of the Panchayat Raj Act, 1994.

Importantly, the Court observed that these statutory duties imposed on Panchayats, Zilla Panchayats, and Municipal Councils are directly linked to Article 243ZD of the Constitution of India, which provides for the establishment of District Planning Committees to consolidate and coordinate local development efforts.

In light of these clear legal provisions, the question arises: Can the Zilla Panchayat or the DPC take refuge behind the government’s inaction on the 2024–25 District Development Plan prepared by the South Goa DPC to justify their failure to prepare and submit plans for 2025–26?