Team Herald
MARGAO: Directions were issued to all the Zilla Panchayat members at the South Goa Zilla Panchayat (SGZP) body meeting, to follow up with village panchayats under their respective jurisdiction so that these panchayats send in their village development plans to the SGZP by April-end.
The matter came up during discussions of the much-delayed compilation of the District Development Plan (DDP) that the SGZP, which is part of the District Planning Committee (DPC) has to coordinate.
SGZP Chairperson Suvarna Tendulkar explained that they had received instructions about this at the recent training session organised by GIPARD.
She stated that the village panchayats are supposed to send their individual development plans in a prescribed format of the Panchayat Department.
“So far, only 9 panchayats have sent their development plans in the format. Another seven had also sent in their plans but not in that format but we have done the needful. However, the remaining 73 panchayats from South Goa are yet to send in their plans. We have sent them two reminders so far,” said Tendulkar.
She also announced that the issue with unused administrative funds worth Rs 24 crore has been resolved following their meeting with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
It may be recalled that the SGZP had been asked to return the amount but had passed a resolution at its last meetings to ask the government if it can still utilise the funds.
Tendulkar stated that the CM has given permission to the SGZP to utilise Rs 12.30 crore in this financial year and then another Rs 12.30 crore in the next financial year.
Tendulkar further gave updates about the 284 works that have been taken up by the SGZP and the situation with 11 tenders that are about to be processed in the coming weeks.
SGZP members were also upset with a letter it had received from the Women and Child Department asking them not to interfere with the welfare of Balwadis and Anganwadis and the SGZP members said some of these centres for children are in a bad condition and need attention.
