PANJIM: Taking a pot-shot at village panchayats passing resolutions against river nationalisation and coal transportation, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday urged them to be more focused towards making their areas garbage and open defecation free rather than focusing on “unwarranted” issues.
Parrikar also took a jibe at NGOs for misleading panchayats on “unwarranted” issues, diverting them from their main agenda of development and cleanliness.
Parrikar was addressing the North Goa panchayat and zilla panchayat members during a half day ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ programme organised by Directorate of Panchayat.
“In last three to four months, I have observed one thing that the agenda of panchayats has been changed. Panchayats nowadays are more into passing resolutions on river nationalisation and coal issue than issues like garbage and sewerage, which need more attention,” he said.
“Garbage, sewerage are issues which panchayats need to talk about and resolve. Open defecation free is another area, where panchayats need to come forward and work. There has to be resolutions to make villages garbage free, open defecation free,” Chief Minister stated. “Resolutions are being passed on unwarranted issues,” he commented.
Reiterating that there is no such thing as nationalisation of rivers, Parrikar said that declaring rivers as national waterways does not mean nationalisation. “There are many who are spreading wrong information and misleading people, especially panchayats. And the outcome is the resolution,” he stated.
Gunning for the NGOs, the Chief Minister said there are NGOs that have personal interest in these matters. “If they (NGOs) are really bothered, let them work and help the government and the village panchayats in making Goa open defecation free,” he said admitting that there are some NGOs which work for good cause.
