Team Herald
MARGAO: Comunidade stakeholders are hopeful that the district administration will expedite the process of digitising the South Goa Comunidade office records so that there is no room for any manipulation in the future or have a situation where records are missing or crumble due to their dilapidated condition.
It may be recalled after issues pertaining to the South Comunidades functioning were brought up in the last Assembly Session, the Chief Minister had directed the South Goa District Collector to hold a meeting with representatives of South Goa-based Comunidade managing committees.
Pursuant to this, the Administrator of Comunidades of South Zone had held subsequent monthly meetings with the stakeholders where various issues were flagged and an action plan was recommended.
Amongst those issues were how the office records at the Office of the Administrator of Comunidades, South Zone are in a poor condition and if left to the vagaries of nature, it could deteriorate even further. Concerns were raised that some of these records are not traceable either. There were also concerns that land sharks could take advantage of the situation.
It was then decided that the old documents need to be digitalised and to also adopt an e-court monitoring system to access these files.
Based on another suggestion, the Collector instructed the Administrator to approach the government and Directorate of Archives and Archaeology with proposals for proper archiving of records, emphasising the urgent need to preserve these valuable historical documents.
This issue is likely to be raised at the next monthly meeting that will happen with the Administrator of Comunidades of South Zone, which has been scheduled for the first Thursday of every month. However, sources stated that there has been little headway in this regard and stakeholders are hoping there can be a timeline given to them for completion of this task, even if it is in phases. Attempts to contact the District Administration to confirm the status of this move on Wednesday went in vain.