The Chairperson of the South Goa Zilla Panchayat is fully justified in refusing to sign the DRDA audit report. When it comes to spending the funds of DRDA it is the prerogative of the concerned Minister, State Secretary and Director of DRDA. The ZP chairperson has to go with a begging bowl before these politicians and bureaucrats. The same holds true for the village panchayats. Goa is the only State where DRDA functions as an autonomous agency. But, when it comes to approving the audit statements it is the ZP chairpersons and the Gram Sabha that get exploited to give their endorsement to such non-transparent and non-participatory fraudulent governance which believes that no force can stop Mopa.
Such continued injustice is made possible because of some elected panchayat representatives (EPRs) who put their personal interests, preferred political parties and politicians above their obligation to the Gram Sabha. They behave like servants of themselves and the politicians rather than the people who elect them. Frankly speaking such EPRs should be rejected by the Gram Sabha on moral grounds. But if the Gram Sabhas in Goa are themselves confused about what constitutes moral or immoral, what can we expect?
The most that will come from this latest tension between the DRDA and the ZP is either a compromise or a no-confidence motion against the Chairperson. Even before any fancy talk about Special Status to Goa by the State Government, it should stop playing the fool and grant the real Constitutional status to the Panchayat Raj institutions in local governance. This surely does not need any negotiations with the Union Government for special concessions.
Soter D’Souza, Socorro
