MARGAO
Even as hundreds of candidates are in the panchayat election fray, jostling for supremacy at the grassroot gram panchayat institution, the Goa Panchayat Raj Institutions have hoped the government implements the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in both letter and spirit by devolution of powers to these local bodies.
In fact, Goa PRIs convenor J Santan Rodrigues reminded that the State government had in the past given an assurance to the High Court to devolve the powers to the Panchayat Raj institutions, but lamented that a decade has passed and the devolution of powers have only remained on paper.
Incidentally, Santan pointed out that he had dashed off a letter to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on issues plaguing the panchayat bodies, including devolution of powers under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment. He, however, said he is yet to receive a reply from the government till date.
“With Ministers and MLAs not willing to concede powers to the Panchayat Raj institutions, the Zilla Panchayat and the District Planning Committee have been literally rendered defunct for want of implementation of the mandatory provisions envisaged under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment,” he said.
In his petition to the Chief Minister dated November 2021, Santan had pointed out that every village panchayat is supposed to prepare every year a Gram Panchayat Development Plan which is to be approved by discussion at the gram sabha Level. “It is understood that in the case of our village panchayat such a plan has been prepared and under the excuse of Covid-19 pandemic has been sent to the higher authorities without following the proper procedure of public participation. Therefore, nobody knows what the plan consists of. It may not be too late if the said plan is debated in the gram sabha now that the Covid-19 situation has substantially improved because our village has special characteristics in the matter of environment, heritage, bio-diversity, etc,” he said.
Saying the State government has appointed one Swayampurna Mitra for each village panchayat to oversee the implementation of government schemes, Santan, however, said such officers hardly interact with the NGOs, Self Help Groups, Mandals, Clubs, etc. Consequently, he said people are not able to take advantage of the scheme and nobody knows who takes the benefit of these schemes, except for a few through which doles are distributed to senior citizens, housewives, widows, disabled and other marginalised.
Saying that the 3rd State Finance Commission had been lying defunct without holding even one meeting, Santan had urged the Chief Minister to constitute the 4th Goa State Finance Commission. He, however, had pointed out that constituting the 4th Goa State Finance Commission may not be easy as the District Planning Committee which is supposed to provide the inputs, exists only on paper.
