MARGAO
The controversial quorum once again came to haunt the South Goa District Planning Committee (DPC) when the planning panel met at the South District Collectorate on Thursday.
Chairperson Suvarna Tendulkar had called for the DPC meeting at 11 am at the conference hall on the third floor of the District Collectorate building. As it turned out, only 5-6 members were seated inside the meeting hall at 11 am.
Ministers Govind Gaude and Subhash Phal Dessai, who hail from South Goa, had deputed their representatives for the meeting. Chairperson of the Cuncolim Municipal Council, Landry Mascarenhas and Sanguem civic chief A Gaonkar were conspicuous by their presence.
Chairperson Tendulkar heaved a sigh of relief as Navelim MLA Ulhas Tuemkar walked into the conference hall, the first MLA amongst the 20 MLAs from the district, making his presence felt at the meeting. The meeting, however, could not commence for want of the quorum.
With the rule book mandating a 4/5th quorum for the meeting to take place, the Chairperson said she would not mind waiting till noon to start the meeting to facilitate the members to turn up.
At around noon, the meeting commenced sans the quorum, with the Chairperson exuding confidence that members would join the discussions midway through the meeting. To the surprise of the members present, Environment Minister Aleixo Sequeira, representing Nuvem, walked into the room to take his seat at around 12.10 pm.
At the fag end of the meeting, ex-Environment Minister and Curchorem MLA Nilesh Cabral made his presence felt, taking the number of MLAs turning up for the meeting to three this time round.
The moot question, however, remains unanswered “ whether the DPC meeting has taken place with the mandatory 4/5th quorum. Only around 16 members out of the 39 members, including three MLAs and two municipal chairpersons, attended the meeting, throwing up the question of whether the presence of the members had met the 4/5th quorum requirement.
Even assuming the provision of the 4/5th quorum is not applicable for the MLAs and MPs, who are the permanent invitees, sources said the meeting was conducted without the mandatory quorum.
