Guirdolim panchayat a tad lax in tax collection

The Guirdolim panchayat in Cuncolim Assembly constituency has seen three sarpanchas and the same number of deputy sarpanchas in the last five years since the 2012 elections. 

The seven elected members include Sonia Dias, Flavia da Costa, Maura D’Costa, Milagres Gonsalves, Ballu Nistani, Agnelo Crasto and Vincie Peixoto.

After the elections, Vincie Peixoto was elected as sarpanch becoming the youngest person ever to hold the post in the village. Sonia Dias was his deputy. However, fearing that he would be dethroned, Vincie resigned as sarpanch.

Subsequently, Milagres Gonsalves, the longest-serving panch, was elected as sarpanch on January 3, 2013 and Maura D’Costa was elected as his deputy on October 4, 2013.

However, there was a division amongst the panchayat primarily on political lines and Milagres was dethroned as sarpanch. Not a person to take things lying down, Milagres got his supporters to hold a protest rally in the village condemning his removal.

Later, Sonia Dias was elected sarpanch on October 4, 2013 and Flavia da Costa was elected deputy sarpanch on October 28, 2014 and both continue in office till date.

“The financial position of the panchayat is not sound” is the comment made by the Auditors in the Audit report of the panchayat for the year 2015-2016. The panchayat largely depends upon government grants to fund its activities. As per the auditor’s report, in the year 2015-16 the panchayat received Rs 13,69,321 from the government and generated only Rs 8,11,816 itself.

The panchayat is also tad lax in collection of taxes. Although it collected around Rs 3.87 lakh by way of house tax, outstanding house tax is around Rs 4.67 lakh. Similarly, though Rs 38,370 was collected as trade/professional tax an amount of Rs 1,79,654 remained to be collected.

Although the panchayat has rented out the first floor of its building to the electricity department, it has not received any rent for the last two years. Last year the rent was revised from Rs 2929 per month to Rs 4,254 per month. But not a single penny has been paid by the electricity department, so far.

The panchayat has constituted three standing committees namely production committee, social justice committee and amenities committee, however, not a single meeting of these committees has been held in the last five years. Significantly, the sarpanch is the chairperson of the production and amenities committees while the deputy sarpanch is the chairperson of the Social Justice Committee as per the Goa Panchayati Raj Act.

Besides, it has also constituted a Garbage Management Committee, a Supervisory Committee, Sanitation Monitoring Committee and a Ward Development Committee. While there has not been a single meeting of the Sanitation Monitoring Committee, the Ward Development Committee generally meets before the gram sabha while the Garbage Committee meets regularly due to which the panchayat has started door to door garbage collection.

The panchayat is regular in holding the four annual gram sabhas and the four special gram sabhas, however the attendance is a cause of concern. At the regular gram sabhas the maximum attendance has been 150 which is less than the required 10 per cent to form the quorum and therefore the meetings are usually adjourned and re-convened half an hour later.

None of the panchayat members were willing to disclose whether they would contest the ensuing panchayat elections or not. However, Sarpanch Sonia Dias said it would depend largely upon who is elected as the MLA.