With 33 panchayats under its belt, the Block Development Office (BDO) in Bardez has been the most stressed department in the taluka.
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Apart from having to look after the regular panchayat activities, several other departments like Rural Development Agency, Women and Child Welfare Department, Social Welfare, Fisheries etc. implement their schemes through the BDO office.
Having to attend to various works of the panchayats, the Bardez BDO has been an overburdened department.
“There are some coastal panchayats in Bardez like Calangute, Candolim and Anjuna whose yearly budget is equivalent to that of ‘B’ class municipal councils,” a source said. “The workload of one panchayat like Calangute can be equivalent to work in 15 low income panchayats,” he added.
The department has also been receiving a rising number of complaints of illegal constructions in its jurisdiction.
The department has been functioning with inadequate staff and a crumbling infrastructure for very long time.
The actual sanctioned staff at BDO is two Block Development Officers, three Extension Officer Village Panchayats (EOVP), one head clerk, five Extension Officer Rural Engineering (EORE)/Technical Assistant, two UDCs, four LDCs, 36 village panchayat secretaries and 12 gram sevaks.
At the moment, the services of only two EOVPs are available at the BDO, of which one EOVP, Suryajirao Rane functions on additional charge and is available only thrice a week in the Bardez BDO. He has been recently transferred as full-time BDO at Bicholim. The second EOVP, Gaonkar is on the verge of superannuation and goes on leave off and on, thereby crippling the functioning in the department.
Out of five sanctioned, only three Extension Officer Rural Engineering (EORE)/Technical Assistant officers are available. Of the two upper division clerks sanctioned, the services of one are available at the office while the LDCs work to its full strength of four.
Besides, 31 village panchayat secretaries are available out of the sanctioned strength of 36, while just 5 gram sevaks are available out of the sanctioned 12. Considering the amount of work carried out by the Bardez block, there is a dire need of additional staff in the BDO.
Besides development works and implementation of schemes, BDO also carries out inspection and election work. The administrative staff in BDO has not been able to cope with the workload due to poor infrastructure. “Out of six computer systems lying in the department, only two are functioning,” a source disclosed.
The two printers in the office have also not been used due to unavailability of cartridges and the photocopier machine has been experiencing frequent breakdowns, the source further said.
When contacted, Panchayats Minister Rajendra Arlekar said that government was aware of the staff crunch not only in BDO, but various other departments too and it was being sorted out in consultation with other departments.
“It’s not that I am trying to pass the buck, but the matter of staff requirement, deployment or transfers in the BDO comes under the revenue department. In any case, the government is trying to put things in place and we will look into the matter,” said Arlekar.
