MARGAO
With the newly-elected Zilla Panchayat members all set to assume office next week, one question that may come to haunt the Zilla Panchayats is simple “ whether the 5th Zilla Panchayat body will ring any good news for bottom to top planning as mandated by the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.
To realise the objective of district planning, the new Zilla Panchayat bodies have a task cut out to put the District Planning Committee (DPCs) in place. Given that the district planning process, down from the village to the district level has now come under the High Court’s scanner, the government may not waste time to immediately constitute the DPCs to set in motion the bottom to top planning exercise.
Officials in the know, however, said the success of the DPCs will purely rest with the level of government support to these planning bodies.
Otherwise, consider this. The High Court had earlier this year, in a PIL filed by NGO, United Goans Foundation, had directed the Director of Panchayats and the Municipal Administration to get the Panchayats and Municipalities submit their development plans to the District Planning Committees (DPCs) in order to consolidate a draft district development plan and submit the same to the government.
Take note, the Panchayat Director had immediately sent memoranda to the BDOs and the panchayats to comply with the High Court directions by submitting the development plans and consolidate the same into a draft district plan.
The Goan understands that the South Goa Zilla Panchayat is believed to have received these development plans from around 21 village panchayats and three civic bodies from the district, with majority of the panchayats and civic bodies defaulting in complying with the memorandums.
That’s not all. The Zilla Panchayat itself is faced with a major problem of scrutinising the development plans received from the panchayats and municipal bodies for want of logistics.
In fact, panchayat officials in the know say the High Court directives may not bring about the desired change on the ground if the government does not support the Zilla Panchayats and the DPCs with logistics, including manpower to process the development plans and consolidate the same into a draft district plan.
Consider this. Around half-a-decade ago, then Chief Executive of South Goa Zilla Panchayat and Member Secretary, South Goa DPC, K V Signapurkar on November 26, 2014, had submitted a complete proposal, with the manpower requirement to man the DPC cell. It was then estimated that the financial liability towards the manpower was pegged around Rs 15.66 lakh six years ago.
A similar reminder was sent to the Panchayat Director by outgoing South Goa ZP CEO Agnelo Fernandes, to depute manpower to man the DPC cell, but in vain.
Incumbent South Goa ZP CEO Triveni Velip has dashed off a similar letter to the panchayat to depute an expert officer to guide the DPC how to go about consolidating the development plans received from the panchayats, municipalities and the Zilla Panchayats. That’s not all. Triveni has asked for dedicated manpower to process the development plans from the panchayats, municipalities and the Zilla Panchayats and to consolidate a draft district plan before submitting the same to the government.
“Government’s announcement to provide additional funds to the Zilla Panchayats will not be enough, unless the DPC is revived with full logistics and manpower requirements,” a senior official informed.
