Team Herald
CARMONA: As part of the Republic Day celebrations on January 26, Carmona panchayat has convened a special gram sabha in the community hall at 10 am for the villagers with the sole agenda of discussion and finalisation of the Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP) 2021-22 after the initial flag hoisting ceremony.
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Carmona sarpanch Allwyn Jorge informed the media that “this Special Gram Sabha will be held almost after a gap of one year due to COVID-19 pandemic. The panchayat had received considerable amount of funds under the 14th Finance Commission but though the proposals were submitted, some are still awaiting administrative approval. As now we will be receiving the 15th Finance funds, there is a risk that the previous funds may lie unutilised solely due to administrative delays in processing our proposals. This issue is almost with majority of the panchayats due to paucity of staff to process developmental proposals at the Block Development Office (BDO) even after creation of the technical cell.”
“The BDO is victimising panchayats as they provide the 14th Finance funds but have no engineers to prepare estimates. We have to forward proposals to the BDO but they do not process files as there are only two engineers for so many panchayats. The two engineers at the BDO are busy with demolitions, site inspections, being appointed administrators of panchayats, etc. Hence, they have no time to process the developmental files of panchayats contributing to the non-utilisation of the 14th Finance funds. Due to these delays, the non-utilised 14th Finance funds will have to be refunded back to the Central government,” Jorge added.
When contacted by Herald, the GSIDC officials Dilip Joshi and Paresh Rawat declined to comment on the reasons for the delays of these pending proposals. Despite several attempts, the GSIDC vice chairman Joshua D’Souza was unavailable for comment.
