TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Hopes that the defunct District Planning Committee, South may be revived before the current term of the South Goa Zilla Panchayat ends in March next year stands dashed.
An agitated ZP Chairperson Nelly Rodrigues, who is an ex-officio chairperson of the DPC, South said she has abandoned all plans to revive the DPC, blaming the government and the Panchayats for their lack of support to put the district planning committee in place. “I tried my best to revive the DPC, South during my tenure, but the response has been lukewarm from the Panchayat bodies. Out of the 69 panchayats in South Goa, only 29 panchayats had submitted their plans to the DPC for consideration,” Nelly told Herald on Thursday.
She said there’s no support forthcoming from the government to get the panchayats and the secretaries cooperate with the Zilla Panchayat or the District Planning Committee by submitting their development plans for consideration. “Without receiving the development plans from the panchayats and the municipalities, we cannot hope to consolidate the plans and forward the same to the government,” she added.
Former ZP member and Curtorim deputy Sarpanch J Santano Rodrigues, however, begged to differ with the South Goa ZP chairperson. “Absence of political has been the prime reason behind the failure of the DPC. Chairperson Nelly blames the panchayats and the government for the situation, but she should explain how many times the Zilla Panchayat had met to prepare a development plan of the district,” he said.
Rodrigues said that Section 238 cast responsibility on the Zilla Panchayat to prepare a development plant of the district every year after including the development plans of panchayats and submit it to the District Planning Committee constituted under section 239 of the Panchayat Raj Act. “Curtorim Panchayat had submitted the development plan to the Zilla Panchayat, but till date we have not received even an acknowledgement. I also would like to know why there’s no representation for sarpanchas on the DPC,” he said.
Though the DPC was constituted by the government over a decade ago, not a single district development plan has been put in place by the panel till date.
