The Ambelim panchayat has witnessed two sarpanchas in the past five years as it was decided earlier that two ladies would share the post. Initially, Sophia Rebello was elected the sarpanch while presently Loreta D’Silva occupies the post.
Tyron Fernandes holds the deputy sarpanch position.
A villager had offered 10,000 sq mts of land to the panchayat to set up a cattle pound which met with stiff opposition by the locals.
According to the auditor’s report, the financial position of the panchayat is not satisfactory and the budget estimates prepared by the panchayat are unrealistic and fictitious as there are huge variations in the receipts and expenditures amounting to a whopping Rs 38.17 lakh.
On the positive side, the panchayat has been very effective in tax collection and has collected more than the estimated amount for house tax and profession/trade tax due to which the balance to be collected is miniscule.
However, the panchayat has been irregular in collecting rent from the shop owners. One shop owner is yet to pay a huge amount of Rs 4.25 lakh and the case has been referred to revenue recovery court, while another shop owner has not paid an amount of Rs 39, 000.
The panchayat is yet to constitute the standing or the supervisory committee as people are not interested. The attendance at the gram sabhas is less and the same people would have to be on the various committees which does not make any sense, says deputy sarpanch Tyron.
The ward development, road safety and sanitation and hygiene committees are dormant while only the village development committee is active.
A huge amount of unspent money amounts to Rs 18.73 lakh and includes Rs 1.88 lakh as members salary and Rs 1.40 lakh as staff salary,
Critical on the functioning of the BDO, Tyron informed that the files sent to the office are just lying without even being processed due to which the panchayat failed to get funds sanctioned under the 14th Finance commission.
The panchayat collects roadside dry plastic every month for a week and the collected waste is then disposed of by government’s Solid Waste Management Cell.
There is no record of how many migrants are residing in the village as none of the landlords have responded to the panchayat’s plea of registering them with the local body.
While the panchayat conducts gram sabha regularly, the issues that generally dominate the gram sabhas are illegal filling of low lying lands and encroachments.
