MARGAO: The South Goa Zilla Parishad on Monday slammed the government for failing to honour its promise of sending the team of ZP members on a study tour to Maharashtra to get an idea of the rights and duties of the ZPs in the neighbouring state.
The ZP members at a meeting alleged that no attempts have been made by the Government to get the ball rolling for the tour. They also alleged that the Government has been treating the ZP members like ‘beggars’ and passed a resolution demanding Rs 50 crore for ZP.
This was the first meeting of the South ZP after the Assembly Election 2017.
The MLAs Clafacio Dias and Wilfred D’Sa were present at the meeting which tabled and passed a resolution to congratulate them.
“Both former ZPs and now MLAs know the troubles that ZP members face and we expect them to raise the issue of powers to ZPs in the Assembly,” said ZP member Govind Gaonkar.
He also alleged that the ZPs have been sidelined from the State Budget.
ZP member Nelly Rodrigues reminded that the funds which Government sent to South Goa ZP earlier are not used and alleged that the engineers have been dillydallying on the estimates.
Chief Officer Krishna Singnapurkar said, “I have not received work bills and if I don’t receive bills I cannot release the payments.”
Clafacio alleged, “Money was distributed to bring me down this election but the people stood by me and I won.”
Meanwhile, Wilfred said that he would fight his level best in the Assembly to get ZPs of Goa their due rights.”
The ZP meeting also passed a resolution requesting the government to intervene and help the bar owners of Goa.
