TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2024
It appears that because there is no punitive action mandated under the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, that the current morass continues.
In a bid to take governance to the grassroot, panchayats are mandated to hold four ordinary sabhas in a year. People are empowered to not only give their suggestions but also question the elected panchayat members at these gram sabhas. The Goa Panchayat Raj Act mandates holding these meetings on any Sundays in the months of January, April, July and October.
However, most panchayats do not follow this tenet. For example, in 2024, 29 of the 30 village panchayats in Salcete did not convene the gram sabhas in January and also in April. Shockingly, Cana-Benaulim, Loutolim and Betalbatim did not convene the January gram sabha, but held their April gram sabha. As there is no legal provision to penalise Sarpanchas for failure to convene the gram sabha, they get away with this disobedience of the law.
Another area where elected panchayat members hoodwink authorities and people is in non-utilisation of funds. While on the one hand panchayat members bemoan that the government has not devolved any powers to the grassroot as envisaged in the Constitutional amendment, the fact remains that panchayats have, by and large, failed to act on the limited powers given to them.
The best example of this can be seen in Salcete where each of the 30 panchayats is sitting pretty on more than rupees one crore of un-utilised funds. The government’s lackadaisical attitude is seen in the fact that even funds allotted to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Goa’s Liberation are unutilised with some panchayats for nearly 14 years now.
What is particularly appalling is that these huge sums of money are kept in savings accounts. Panchayats brazenly ignore auditors’ repeated suggestion to invest this money in at least a fixed deposit to earn extra revenue, instead of earning a pittance as interest in savings account. And this when at present most nationalised banks offer attractive packages for even a three-month fixed deposit. Punitive action against the Sarpanch and the Panchayat Secretary for such mishandling of funds will probably bring a change.
Yet another area where the panchayats refuse to modernise themselves is in the mode of accepting payments. In the present digital world, where even a street vendor practices cashless transactions, most panchayats are alien to digital payments even though many of their tax payers would prefer making electronic payments. Panchayats insist on accepting payment by cash or at the most by cheque which may be deposited directly in the account. However, those opting for cash payments face various problems; the most common being not getting the receipt, generally because the Secretary – who is the authorised signatory – is not available. What is particularly irksome is that most panchayats refuse to accept payments, including house tax, in April and May on grounds that a new register has to be prepared for the new financial year. This is a big hurdle for people who work outside Goa but return home for summer holidays and would like to clear all their dues to the panchayat when they are in the village. It is time panchayats be taken to task for not accepting digital payment even though they have a computer, an internet connection and the required staff, whose salaries are paid by the government.
A new malaise has stuck panchayats in the last decade, and that is occupying Sarpanch’s chair in rotation. In bygone era, before the advent of the British, a sagacious person was appointed the Sarpanch to oversee the matters of the village. This practice continued even in the post Independence era. But that has now changed and anybody and everybody wants to be a sarpanch, even if it is for a mere six-month term. The reason for this lust or craze is incomprehensible. But what is appalling is that elected MLAs and even inducted ministers encourage and bless such ‘agreements to rotate’. Such practice of “sharing” has to be debarred by law.
