TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Just imagine a situation when a meeting convened by a Panchayat could not transact any business for want of a panchayat secretary.
Well, Colva Panchayat’s meeting scheduled on Thursday had to be cancelled after the panchayat secretary played truant. Panchayat members, who turned up for the meeting, had to return home disappointed. An angry Sarpanch Snowkon Gonsalves has lodged his complaint with the Panchayat Director on the panchayat secretary’s absence for the meeting.
That’s not all. If Gonsalves is to be believed, Colva panchayat had the distinction of having four panchayat secretaries in the last two months. Asks Gonsalves: “What the panchayat supposed to do when the panchayat secretaries deputed by the government are not full-time and visit the panchayat only thrice a week?”
The sarpanch told the panchayat director that the Colva Panchayat administration has come to a virtual halt for want of a full-fledged secretary since the last two months. “The panchayat secretary is supposed to visit Colva every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The incumbent secretary has failed to show up his face on Tuesday as well as on Thursday. We will have to wait for the secretary coming Tuesday since it’s a holiday on second Saturday,” the Sarpanch stated.
Incidentally, many a panchayat body from Salcete had been knocking the doors of the panchayat authorities for full-time secretaries, but in vain. Sources in the know said that nearly one third of the panchayat bodies in Salcete are functioning with part-time secretaries, affecting the day-to-day administration.
