The Dramapur Sirlim village panchayat that forms part of the Velim assembly constituency has the distinction of having five sarpanchas in the last five years. One resigned on health grounds while the others were ousted from office.
Initially Olasrico Rodrigues, who is incidentally contesting again this time, was elected as the sarpanch but remained in office for less than a year. He was replaced by Agostinho who resigned on health grounds and subsequently expired.
The third sarpanch to be elected was Domnick Noronha who was followed by Edcy Fernandes and finally Bernard Rebello who is the sarpanch presently with Sylvie Fernandes as the deputy sarpanch.
The panchas of Dramapur Sirlim are Olasrico Rodrigues, Edcy Fernandes, Natty Ferrao, Domnick Noronha and Juzu Fernandes who was elected to fill in the vacancy left by Agostinho’s death.
The panchayat conducts the gram sabhas regularly with an average attendance of around 50 people and the issue dominating the gram sabha is usually the erratic power supply to the village.
Although 41 people have prepared the cards for NREGA scheme only around 6 come to work regularly. The panchayat has completed four works under NREGA worth around Rs. 1.30 lakhs while one project worth Rs. 81,000 is going on.
The panchayat has constituted various committees but none of them meet with the exception of the Village Development Committee that is forced to meet to avail funds under the 14th Finance Commission. Incidentally this panchayat has not constituted the standing committees due to the absence of any interest by the people.
While the site selected by the panchayat for garbage segregation has been rejected by the Goa State Pollution Control Board, the panchayat collects dry plastic waste from every household every fortnight by engaging around three labourers per ward.
Although the village faces a stray cattle problem there is no cattle pound set up because it is difficult to maintain it. Although the panchayat has some migrants living in its jurisdiction, many who live on a rental basis the panchayat is not receiving any income from the people who have rented out their residential houses.
As per the auditor’s report, the financial position of the panchayat is quite satisfactory even though it noted the budget estimate preparation was unrealistic/fictitious given the fact that there were huge variations in the income and expenditure in the estimates. While the variation in the budget estimates for income was Rs. 7.90 lakhs, the variation in expenditure was a whopping Rs. 36.14 lakhs.
The panchayat has huge amounts that have not been spent. Rs. 27.11 lakhs from GIA, Rs. 1.60 lakhs from garbage and Rs. 4.19 lakhs under the 14th Finance have not been spent. Besides the balance tax collection is Rs. 2.79 lakhs of house tax and Rs. 57,000 of the professional tax.
The panchayat secretary has not furnished the security bond which is mandatory as he deals with the panchayat cash and nothing has been done to execute it.
