MARGAO
When the meeting of the South Goa District Planning Committee (DPC) was called off on December 13 last for lack of quorum, members present had raised a point for debate “ who actually constitutes the members of the DPC in the strict sense of the term, whether members means the elected members or the total members, including the MLAs or MPs from the district?
This question assumes significance and comes against the backdrop of the fact that most MLAs and MPs from South Goa had played truant when the DPC was convened on five previous occasions in the last 23 years.
For, the DPC consists of elected members to the panel, comprising of the South Goa Zilla Panchayats, besides MLAs, MPs and the Chairpersons of the Municipal Councils. When the members present for the December 13 meeting found to their shock and surprise that all the 20 MLAs and the MPs from South Goa played truant, an elected DPC member in private questioned whether the presence of MLAs and MPs is required for the DPC to hold the meeting since they are not elected on the DPC.
In fact, the members present had a look at the provision in the Goa Panchayat Raj on rules governing the DPC meeting, only to realise that the rules only speak about the presence of members to constitute the quorum and does not distinguish between the elected members on the DPC and the MLAs and MPs, who are members of the DPC by virtue of being elected representatives from South Goa.
A DPC member told The Goan that the question over who is the real member of the DPC and whether the presence of MLAs is required to form the meeting quorum will certainly come to the fore in the future if the MLAs and MPs continue to stay away from the DPC meetings. “One day, someone will knock the doors of the Judiciary to clear the air of uncertainty over the membership of the DPC. For, though MLAs are members of the Municipal bodies, their presence is not counted when the question of quorum comes to the fore,” remarked a DPC member.
