ZP chief postpones meet for lack of quorum
MARGAO
The long-delayed meeting of the Constitutionally-mandated District Planning Committee (DPC) of South Goa scheduled on Wednesday to transact the business of approving the draft-district Development Plan 2024-25 was called off for want of quorum after the Ministers and MLAs from South district played truant.
With none of the 20 MLAs, including Ministers, turning up for the meeting at the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative Complex in the South district Collectorate, Chairperson of the South Goa Zilla Panchayat, Suvarna Tendulkar, who heads the DPC, announced postponement of the meeting. Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral made his presence felt at the meeting hall only after the meeting was called off.
The meeting was scheduled at 11 am on Wednesday, but the conference hall in the Collectorate saw the presence of only 10 of the 40 DPC members, including the Chairperson of the Margao Municipal Council, Damu Shirodkar. The MLAs, including the Ministers were conspicuous by their absence. Social Welfare Minister, Subhash Phal Dessai, who represents Sanguem in the Legislative Assembly, had deputed his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) for the meeting.
The meeting rules provides for the presence of 4/5th of the total members of the panel to form the quorum. As it turned out, however, only 10 members turned up for the meeting when a total of 16 members were required to form the basic quorum.
Though the meeting was scheduled to commence at 11 am, Chairperson Suvarna Tendulkar and Member Secretary Florina Colaco waited till 11.45 am for the members to attend the meeting, before the Chairperson took the mike to announce the postponement.
Tendulkar later told the media that she would call the adjournment meeting within one month in January. “The objective behind convening the DPC was to seek approval from the members for the draft-Development Plan and forward the same to the government for allocation of funds,” she said.
She added: “We had taken charge of the South Goa Zilla Panchayat in 2021. We had set in motion the process to prepare the DPC, but the process could not be taken to its logical conclusion since the panel did not receive the development plans from the panchayat and Municipal bodies from the district.”
When her attention was drawn to the fact that the South Goa Zilla Panchayat is ruled by the BJP and that majority of the South Goa MLAs belong to the ruling party, Tendulkar said, “We had sent invites to all the MLAs and the MPs to attend the meeting. I will now personally call up the MLAs from South Goa before the next meeting of the DPC is convened in January to make sure that the process is taken to its logical conclusion.”
“Social Welfare Minister Subhash Phal Dessai had deputed his OSD for the meeting. I have no idea why the MLAs from South Goa could not make it for the meeting. May be whether they have gone to attend the programme of former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar,” she added.
