Team Herald
MARGAO: Ten of the 30 village panchayats in Salcete do not have a dedicated full-time secretary with some given additional charge of these local bodies while in some cases, gram sevaks have been assigned the duty and responsibility of a panchayat secretary.
Four village panchayats namely Colva, Aquem Baixo, Varca and Paroda have gram sevaks – Amol Tilve, Alauddin Maniyar, Uday Phaldessai and Dnyaneshwar Dhabolkar functioning as panchayat secretaries and managing the affairs of the panchayat quite effectively even though some of them are riddled with problems.
Six village panchayats are served by three panchayat secretaries who are looking after the affairs of two village panchayats at the same time. Purshotam Alve is looking after Orlim and Carmona, Nilesh Shoirdkar is the secretary for Rachol and Camurlim and Dhaklu Ghadi has recently been appointed secretary of Chandor-Cavorim and Macasana.
In fact Dhaklu Ghadi has been appointed to the Salcete block from the Ponda block where he was working till now. BDO Malindra Velip pointed out that it was the Director of Panchayats who appointed panchayat secretary and added that only the director would be able to explain as to why there is a shortage of panchayat secretaries.
