MARGAO
When the High Court had issued directions to the panchayat and municipal authorities to get the development plans from the local bodies within a timeframe to prepare a draft development plan for the district, hopes were finally raised that the defunct District Planning Committees will get a lease of life and usher in bottom-to-top planning.
Blame it on the delay in holding elections to the Zilla Panchayats or the failure to constitute the District Planning Committees (DPC) or simply lack of will by the powers that be to give effect to the High Court orders, the ground reality has not changed for the better.
All that has been noticed based on the High Court directions is just correspondence between the Directors of Panchayats and Municipalities to the Zilla Panchayats. The Zilla Panchayats in turn issued directions to the panchayats and municipalities to submit the annual development plans.
After the High Court had issued directions to the panchayats and municipal authorities on February 12 last to set in motion the process to obtain the development plans, the process is just confined to the papers.
Take note, based on the instructions from the Panchayat Director, the South Goa Zilla Panchayat, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) had sent letters to the panchayat bodies across the district to send their development plans, but not all the local bodies have complied with the directions.
That’s not all. Questions are being raised in the absence of the elected Zilla Panchayats, who will prepare the annual development plans for the year 2020-21 as the district panchayat bodies were mandated to prepare the same on or before July 15, 2020.
The elected ZPs are not in existence for the moment as elections for the district planning bodies scheduled on March 22 could not be held in view of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic.
With the elected ZPs not in place, questions are also being raised over the existence of the District Planning Committees. The DPCs are not only headed by the respective chairpersons of the Zilla Panchayats, but its members comprise ZP members and members of the municipal councils.
As per Panchayat Director Narayan Gad’s letter to the Zilla Panchayats dated March 18, 2020, the latter were mandated to prepare the annual development plan of the district for the year 2020-21 on or before July 15, 2021. The development plans of the panchayats were to be submitted to the District Planning Committee on or before August 31, 2020 for the preparation of the draft development plan for the district and forward it to the government.
