Team Herald

BASTORA: The meeting to prepare Bastora development plan witnessed poor attendance as just 10 of the 106 Village Development Committee members turned out, on Sunday.

Of the elected representatives, only the sarpanch and a panch attended the meeting, which began one hour late at 12 noon.

When contacted, Sarpanch Savio Martins said that the meeting was attended by ten committee members where they discussed the action plan. 

“We are the second panchayat in Bardez to submit the GPDP (Gram Panchayat Development Plan) for 2017-18. We are now preparing a GPDP for 2018-19. Locals are not considered for VDC meetings. The opinion and suggestions of the villagers regarding the GPDP was considered at the gram sabha,” the sarpanch said.

He informed that 110 jobs are proposed under the GPDP which again depends on the availability of funds. “We have 35 files where technical sanctions have been allotted but to execute the same we do not have sufficient funds. We have technical sanctions in hand of over Rs 1.17 crore projects. Under the 14th Finance we received around Rs 11 lakh and all has been utilized. This is not sufficient as we want to deliver the jobs on time,” Savio added.

Lamenting at the poor turnout, VDC Convener Andrew D’Souza, said, “This GPDP meeting was poorly attended by only six out of the 106 VDC members, which shows no one is interested in chalking out the development plan for the village.”