the goan I network
MARGAO
Room No 337, third floor of the Matanhy Saldanha Administrative complex was booked on Tuesday for a special purpose -- to host a meeting of the Constitutionally-mandated District Planning Committee (DPC) for South Goa.
As it turned out, however, this Constitutionally-mandated planning panel, created as per Article 243D of the Constitution, had to literally hunt for members to form the basic quorum to proceed with the meeting.
Otherwise, consider this. The meeting called exactly at 11 am could not take off for want of quorum, comprising of 15 members. South Goa Zilla panchayat Chairperson Navnath Naik, who is the ex-officio chairperson of the South DPC along with Member Secretary Agnelo Fernandes were seated in the conference room with 5-6 elected members, including ZP members and some Municipal Councilors, who are all members of the planning body.
All the MLAs from South Goa are permanent members of the DPC, but none of them were seated in the room at 11 am. So were the two MPs, who were conspicuous by their absence.
At around 11.15 am, Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai walked into the room to take his seat. He, however, was taken aback when Navnath informed that the proceedings cannot start without a quorum. Vijai and the Member Secretary Agnelo were later trying to find out whether the law provides for an adjournment before the meeting takes off sans the quorum.
Members present heaved a sigh of relief when Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar walked into the room, but the joy was short lived as a head count again showed at least two members short of the quorum.
In between, Nelly Rodrigues got in touch with Curtorim MLA Reginaldo Lourenco to come for the meeting and handed over the phone to Vijai, who asked the Curtorim MLA to come rushing to the district Collectorate to save the day.
It was only after Power Minister and Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral made his presence felt in the room that the meeting complied with the quorum.
And, when the DPC meeting actually took place, Navnath maintained that he did not hold any meetings in the last five years as the government did not support the request for manpower and logistic support.
Member Secretary Agnelo further remarked that while his office had sought plans from the panchayats and municipalities in South Goa, only 47 panchayats responded by sending their plans, while there was no response from the civic bodies -- defeating the very objective of constituting the
DPC under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, envisaging devolution of powers and funds to the panchayat bodies.
