MARGAO: The 30 panchayats in Salcete continued with their musical chair game in 2020 despite the prevailing pandemic and many even failed to hold their gram sabhas or have been functioning without the gram sabhas being approved by the villagers.
But what is amazing is that in most panchayats, as per the agreement, the rotation of sarpanch post amongst the elected members continued without any hitch with the only exception being Davorlim Dicarpale panchayat where Siya Varak still occupies the post.
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As soon as the elections were held, Flancy Gomes was elected sarpanch of Davorlim-Dicarpale, who was later voted out of office and later it was decided that the sarpanch’s post will be occupied in turns by the remaining five women panchayat members.
Accordingly, Dina Kulkarni was elected the sarpanch and she resigned to pave way for Sahar Shaikh to occupy the post and after her resignation Siya Varak was elected and is expected to resign any moment to pave way for either Nidhi Malvankar or Cressy Colaco to become the next sarpanch.
However, sarpanchas of Aquem Baixo, Sao Jose de Areal and Seraulim have changed as the elected panchayat members had an agreement that the post of sarpanch would be occupied amongst themselves in turns.
At Sao Jose de Areal Vincy Mascarenhas resigned to pave way for Minguel Gomes to be elected as the sarpanch while at Aquem Baixo Anand Zambaulikar was elected sarpanch a few days back after Subhash Satardekar resigned from that position and in October, Leslie Dourado was elected sarpanch of Seraulim after Domingos Fernandes resigned.
Even though secretary is the official functionary of the panchayat, five panchayats in Salcete are served by secretaries holding additional charge which means they are secretaries elsewhere and have additional charge of these panchayats which are generally neglected. The secretary gives priority to the panchayat where he or she is actually appointed.
Of the 30 panchayats in Salcete, only 11 got their budget approved by the villagers at a gram sabha while the Goa Panchayat Raj Act mandates that the budget be approved by the gram sabha and though all panchayats have to hold four gram sabhas each calendar year, the villages that did not even hold one gram sabha in 2020 are Loutolim, Ambelim, Aquem-Baixo, Cana-Benaulim, Davorlim-Dicarpale, Velim, Assolna, Rachol, Dramapur-Sirlim, Raia and Orlim.
The panchayats are desperately waiting for the amendment to the Goa Panchayat Raj Act that will address some of the issues faced by them. In the first place though panchayats are empowered to issue stop work order following an inspection of any alleged illegal structure, they have no power to do anything if the party does not obey the stop work order as the law is silent on it.
At present, the panchayats use their good offices with the police to sort of threaten the person carrying the illegal construction but if worse comes to worse the police also refuse to interfere claiming it to be a civil matter and hence they have no role to play.
Another drawback the panchayats face is the ousting of sarpanch or deputy sarpanch by a simple majority which has initiated the game of musical chairs in the panchayats. Agnelo Fernandes former sarpanch of Benaulim recalls that during his time a two-third majority was required to oust a sarpanch and argued that only those sarpanchas who truly deserved to be voted out would face a no-confidence motion.
The other issue that erupts very often at gram sabhas is the absence of the elected panchayat member for the gram sabha. The Panchayat Raj Act is silent on this and that is why at many villages the panchayat members are not present for the gram sabha.
Villagers have been demanding that just as panchayat member is eligible for disqualification for not attending more than 3 continuous panchayat body meetings, some penalty should be levied on the panchayat member for not attending the gram sabha.
