CANACONA: With nothing much to offer on the agenda, Loliem-Polem gram sabha was held with only eight villagers attending the meeting on Sunday; an equal number of panchas were sitting on the dais, though.
The issue of low turnout at the gram sabha meetings off late is a question of debate and worry amongst the nine elected representatives of this village which incidentally is the last village to the south of Goa.
All the panchas except for one were in time for the gram sabha while the start of the gram sabha got delayed initially as there were only a couple of villagers in the hall.
At last when the meeting started there were eight villagers in the hall as hundreds of vacant plastic chairs stared the eight panch members which included the sarpanch and deputy sarpanch.
Also present on the dais were secretary and an observer from BDO office.
With no significant business on the agenda, the minutes of the last meeting and statement of accounts was read out to those present which was later ratified.
Villager Manoj Prabhugaonkar, who incidentally has not missed a single gram sabha meeting since last more than fivers years, expressed his displeasure on the decline of interest amongst the villagers in participating in the gram sabha meeting and requested the sarpanch to implement some innovative measures so as to improve the attendance and generate interest among the villagers.
Sarpanch Shailesh Pagi said that by looking at the low attendance it looks like all the villagers are either too happy with the functioning of the panchayat or they feel that it is useless and waste of their valuable time.
Another point that came up for discussion was the notification from the Director of panchayats to keep the panchayat office closed on Sundays compulsorily.
Loliem-Polem is one of the few panchayats in Goa which keeps the panchayat office open on Sunday as lot of villagers who are working on week days cannot get their work done.
Former sarpanch Ajay Lolienkar said that this is an important issue and the panchayat has to call a special gram sabha to deliberate and determine, if villagers need the panchayat office to be open on Sundays then the panchayat will have to take a resolution regarding this Lolienkar advised.
Before the gram sabha ended Dr Divakar Velip attached to Canacona community health center presented a talk on control of vector borne diseases.
