Team Herald
MARGAO: The Colva gram sabha approved Rs 2.88 crore deficit budget as some villagers pointed out the lacunae in the budget preparation.
To add to this, the Secretary was pulled up by the Sarpanch for not coming fully prepared at the gram sabha.
In the first place, some villagers demanded a copy of the budget so that they could be prepared to discuss it and the sarpanch and secretary promised to provide it in advance in future.
It was revealed that no budget was provided for sports while neither the sarpanch nor the secretary could answer the meaning of “drinking water” under which quite a bit of money was provided. Even as the gram sabha continued to discuss other matters, it was later revealed that public wells were repaired under the funds kept under the head “drinking water” and an amount of Rs 50,000 was provided for sports.
The budget projected receipts of Rs 80.3 lakh with Rs 39 lakh coming from taxes and Rs 19.62 lakh from government as special funds. The major expenditure for the panchayat was towards administration where Rs 56.32 lakh were projected. While Rs 22 lakh were projected as expenditure towards public works and towards sanitation Rs 27.50 lakh were projected.
