Gram sabha members question payments to contractors
The gram sabha of Guirdolim village panchayat held on Sunday turned stormy over the controversial road works.
MARGAO
The gram sabha of Guirdolim village panchayat turned stormy over the controversy surrounding the road works with members demanding a Vigilance inquiry into the issue.
They also demanded that the panchayat write to the Salcete Block Development Officer to lodge a FIR against the concerned engineer for effecting the payments to the contractor when the works remained incomplete.
Gram sabha members also raised a pertinent question as to how certain contractors manage to get the government sanction, demanding a transparency in the execution of works even though the panchayat may not be directly connected with the payment of money.
Sarpanch Sonia Fernandes, who chaired the meeting held on Sunday, said the panchayat would write a letter to the Salcete BDO demanding a vigilance probe into the controversial road work as resolved by the gram sabha.
The sarpanch insisted that the panchayat has not made the payments and neither has the money for the execution of the works come to the panchayat for execution. Members, however, demanded to know whether the panchayat can remain a silent spectator or whether there is any mechanism in place to bring the fraudulent works executed by the contractors engaged by the government.
When a gram sabha member demanded to know what is the avenue for the citizens if they find a tendered work not executed as per the norms, the sarpanch said, “The BDO engineers are mandated to check and verify the works before releasing the payments. We have not done the payments. It is the duty of the engineers attached to the BDO office to do the inspection before releasing the payments.”
The sarpanch claimed that a deliberate attempt was made to misguide the people through a video that an amount of Rs 70 lakh had come to the panchayat to execute the works. The contractors have got the works approved and the money has not come to the panchayat, she asserted.
