Team Herald
MARGAO: Not a single government official from the 10 departments directed by the Director of Panchayats to attend the special gram sabhas on October 2 showed up at eight of the 30 villages in Salcete taluka, while attendance at two panchayats was not available.
The panchayats that did not have any government official attending the gram sabhas were Orlim, Camorlim, Colva, Raia, Carmona, Aquem Baixo, Paroda and Telaulim while the highest attendance was at Navelim where representatives from six different departments were present.
The Navelim gram sabha was attended by representatives of Zonal Agriculture Office, Child Development Project Officer, Civil Supplies, Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services and ITI Borda. Guirdolim and Ambelim had representatives from four departments.
While Guirdolim had representatives of four departments namely Zonal Agriculture Office, Health Services, National Institute of Technology and Police; Ambelim had representatives from Forest, Fisheries, Child Development Project Officer and Health Services.
The most responsive government department in Salcete was the Zonal Agriculture Office and Health Services as their representatives attended eight gram sabhas each followed by Child Development Project Office whose representatives were present at seven gram sabhas and representatives of Water Supply department of PWD attended six gram sabhas.
Forest Department and Fisheries Department representatives attended only the Ambelim gram sabha while representative of ITI Borda was present for the Navelim gram sabha and National Information Technology representative was present for the Guirdolim gram sabha.
Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services representative was present only for the Navelim gram sabha while Rural Development Agency representative was present for the Sarzora gram sabha and a police representative was present for the Guirdolim gram sabha.
Status of the gram sabhas at Assolna and Cavelossim could not be gathered as the sarpanch or secretary could not be contacted.
It may be recalled that the Director of Panchayats had asked 10 different departments to depute a representative from their office to the gram sabha to assist the village panchayats in preparing the draft Gram Panchayat Development Plan.
Director of Panchayat Ajit Panchawadkar said he will be seeking a report from the Block Development Officers about how many government servants attended the gram sabha.
