MARGAO
Has the Constitutionally-mandated District Planning Committee (DPC) for South Goa set in motion the process to put in place the district Draft Development Plan? Or, will the DPC meet the same fate as was the case with these committees over the last two decades?
These and other questions have indeed come to the fore as the South DPC is believed to have not met so far, leave alone setting in motion the process to invite development plans from the Panchayats and Municipal bodies from the district.
Consider this. It would be eight months on September 8 that the South Goa Zilla Panchayat assumed office with the election of chairperson on January 8 last. The Zilla panchayat body had later elected ZP members on the DPC at one of its meetings after assuming office in January.
Sadly, the meeting of the DPC, South is believed to have not taken place to date.
When ‘The Goan’ called up South Goa Zilla Chairperson, Suvarna Tendulkar, who is the ex-officio Chairperson of the DPC, to shed light on the status of the panel, she said the body had forwarded the names of the elected members to the government to notify the DPC. She said the Chief Executive Officer will be the right person to answer queries on the matter.
When The Goan, called up the Director of Panchayats Siddhi Halarnkar to shed light on the South DPC, she informed that the DPCs for both North and South Goa district were notified in the government gazette dated July 22, 2021. “The office of the Director of Panchayat has notified the DPCs for both North and South Goa districts in the official gazette on July 22 last. Now, it’s for the ex-Official Chairperson and the CEOs to take the work of the DPCs forward as per the rules and guidelines in force,” she said.
The Panchayat Director added: “I have requested the South DPC CEO to call a meeting of the panel to discuss the plans received from the Panchayats and Municipal bodies before consolidating the same into a draft development plan. The meeting might take place after Ganesh Chaturthi”.
The DPC is required to call for plans from the Zilla Panchayat, the Panchayat and Municipal Councils development plans before the planning panel consolidate the plans into a draft plan. In the past, CEO’s of South DPC had even petitioned the office of the Panchayat Director to constitute a DPC cell with dedicated staff to take the planning process forward since the staff attached to the Zilla panchayat were too busy with Zilla work.
