MARGAO
Amidst questions over the lack of meeting quorum, the much-awaited meeting of the South Goa District Planning Committee (DPC) finally took place on Thursday, with the planning body giving its nod for the draft District Development Plan and resolved to submit the plan to the government for implementation.
Perhaps for the first time in the 24-year history of the constitutionally-mandated planning panel, the South Goa DPC compiled a draft District Development Plan for the entire district by consolidating plans received from the Panchayat bodies and the Zilla Panchayat.
Around 3400-odd proposals for development works received by the DPC -- 3119 from the panchayat bodies and 346 from the South Goa Zilla Panchayat -- pegged at an estimated cost of Rs 148 crore, have been consolidated into the draft District Development Plan. The plan was discussed at the DPC chaired by Chairperson Suvarna Tendulkar and later approved.
However, of the total 89 Panchayat bodies in South Goa, only 53 Panchayats have sent their development plans to the DPC for consolidation. While none of the eight municipal bodies had forwarded their development plans, an engineer of the Margao Municipal Council submitted a development proposal to the DPC just minutes before the meeting could commence at the South Goa District Collectorate building on Thursday.
Chairperson Tendulkar, however, pointed out that while the DPC would forward the draft Development plan to the Panchayat Director, plans received from the remaining panchayat and municipal bodies will be compiled and sent to the government after a DPC meeting.
Chairperson Tendulkar and Member Secretary Florina Fernandes pointed out that this is perhaps the first time in the history of DPC that a consolidated draft district development plan has been put in place and approved. The duo said though development plans from some of the Panchayat and municipal bodies have not yet come in, painstaking efforts have helped to put the draft district development plan in place.
Questions, however, have been raised whether the draft development plan would find favour with the government with doubts expressed whether the meeting had taken place for complying with the quorum.
