MARGAO
Records show that successive South Goa District Planning Committees (DPC) had failed to complete the process of consolidating the draft development plans since these panels came into existence around two decades ago.
Though token attempts were made to forward proposals to the government received from the local bodies, these panels have been rendered defunct over the years with the committee only confined to the papers. Records show that the first meeting of the South DPC was convened on July 20, 2004, while the second meeting of the reconstituted DPC took place seven years later in July 2011.
It is learnt that the third meeting of the DPC was convened on October 18, 2013, but it could not take place for want of quorum.
The last meeting of the DPC, South took place on January 28, 2020, on the initiative of then CEO Agnelo Fernandes. A couple of MLAs from the South, including Minister Nilesh Cabral, Vijai Sardesai, Prasad Gaonkar and Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco did turn up for the meeting, but the process could not be taken to the logical conclusion.
Against this backdrop, city-based NGO United Goans Foundation had knocked on the doors of the High Court, seeking relief to force the DPC to comply with the planning process. The Goa Institute of Public Administration and Rural Development (GIPARD) had later offered to empower the DPCs as per the mandate of the constitution but in vain.
