Team Herald
MARGAO: The Chinchinim Deussua gram sabha could not transact any of the business listed on the agenda thanks to the truant played by Secretary Roquizinha Fernandes who went on leave on Friday.
A villager Savio Lopes interrupted the reading of minutes on grounds that they were wrongly written. “We do not understand these minutes as there is no grammar and this is not correct English,” he said demanding to know why the Secretary was not present.
Acting Sarpanch Valentino Barreto revealed that the secretary had gone on leave two days before and also pointed out that the Sarpanch is on leave. Another villager Ajit Kamat alleged that the secretary had wrongly written the panchayat body meetings and he wanted to discuss the matter which was not possible in her absence.
Savio’s suggestion to take on record the video recording of the previous gram sabha as approval of minutes and to compare it with the minutes written on the minute book by the Secretary at a later date was accepted by the gram sabha.
Next on agenda was the budget which again was objected to as neither the Administrative Report nor the Annual Statement of Account was placed before the gram sabha. It was also pointed out that the Audit Reports were also not placed before the gram sabha. At the start of the meeting the panchayat was grilled over not having gram sabhas as stipulated in the law and it was pointed out that only two gram sabhas were held for the current financial year.
The panchayat was asked to convene another gram sabha as soon as possible to approve the budget as Valentino’s proposal to convene a gram sabha in May was rejected.
