Team Herald
PANJIM: Taking note of several village panchayats not convening their gram sabhas, the Block Development Officer (BDO), Tiswadi taluka has asked 18 panchayats from the taluka to hold the meetings.
According to Tiswadi BDO Anil L Dhumaskar, every village panchayat has to hold gram sabha meetings on any Sunday of January, April, July and October each year as per the Section (1) of the Goa Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.
However, the BDO noticed that the sarpanchas of these panchayats had failed to convene the gram sabhas. Therefore, the BDO has now fixed dates for these panchayats to hold gram sabhas beginning from Sunday November 7.
On Sunday, the gram sabha will be held at Neura panchayat at 10 am while, on November 14, gram sabhas will be held at Batim, St Estevam, San Andre (Goa Velha), Taleigao, Corlim and St Lourenco (Agacaim) panchayats.
On November 21 gram sabhas will be held at Siridao-Palem, Goltim-Navelim, Azossim-Mandur, Se Old Goa and Sao Mathias panchayats while on November 28 Carambolim, Merces, Curca-Bambolim-Talaulim, St Cruz, Cumbarjua and Chodan-Madel panchayats will have their gram sabhas.
The panchayat secretaries have been directed to comply with all formalities and procedures as required under the rules to hold gram sabhas and also to comply all COVID-19 norms such as wearing of face masks, use of hand sanitisers, etc.
As per the Goa Panchayat Raj Act, every panchayat has to convene four special meetings of the gram sabha on January 26, August 15, October 2 and December 19 every year. These are statutory gram sabhas wherein Gram Panchayat Development Plan of every panchayat starts from October 2.
