MARGAO
What has prevented the South Goa District Planning Committee (DPC) from convening a meeting of the Planning body, established under the Constitution of India, to prepare a draft Development Plan for South Goa region after consolidating the plans received from Zilla Panchayat, panchayats and municipal bodies?
Consider the following. The South DPC, headed by South Goa Zilla Panchayat Chairperson Suvarna Tendulkar, was officially notified by the government in July 2021. Apart from members of the Zilla Panchayat, panchayat and municipal bodies, the DPC comprises members, including local MLAs and MLAs from the South Goa district, who are all permanent members of the panel.
Unfortunately, not a single meeting of the DPC to review the functioning of the body has taken place to date. Additionally, neither the MP nor the MLAs from South Goa have publicly requested the DPC Chairperson to convene a meeting of the panel, which was established under the Constitution of India.
It’s crucial to note that every time DPC Chairperson Tendulkar or Member Secretary Florina Colaco were questioned by the media regarding their failure to convene a single meeting of the panel since its inception, the duo consistently maintained that the meeting would be held once DPC receives the development plans from local bodies.
Questions are being raised about why the DPC has not met even once since its notification by the government in July 2021, particularly in light of the numerous roadblocks the panel has encountered in preparing the draft development plan for the district.
When The Goan approached Panchayat Director Siddhi Halarnkar to shed light on the South DPC’s failure to convene a meeting in 2021, she responded that the meeting would be held after Ganesh Chaturthi. Nevertheless, Ganesh Chaturthi, Diwali, and Christmas have all passed in the past two years, yet the DPC meeting has yet to materialise.
On Wednesday, DPC Member Secretary Colaco, when questioned by The Goan on the matter, stated that she would discuss the possibility of scheduling a DPC meeting with Chairperson Tendulkar at the earliest.
Convenor of Goa Panchayat Raj Institutions, J Santan Rodrigues, stated, “It is both shocking and surprising that the DPC has not convened a single meeting since its notification in July 2021. The least the DPC Chairperson and Member Secretary could have done was to convene a meeting of the members to discuss how to proceed with preparing the plan.”
