CHANDOR: The villagers approved a Rs 1.71 crore deficit budget for Guirdolim, even as it was termed “unrealistic” and the government was castigated for strangulating panchayat by not releasing funds.
Deputy sarpanch Joao Peixote chaired the special gram sabha as the sarpanch is on leave and secretary Ameya Miringkar projected the budget on a large screen.
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Savio Antao, who is also the Convenor of the Village Development Committee while referring to previous audit reports, termed the budget “unrealistic” as high projections were shown. “You have provided Rs 1.5 crore for constructing a Panchayat Ghar without even having the property document in hand and because of such projections, the auditors comment that the budget is unrealistic,” he said.
Savio rejected the panchayat’s claim of having collected house tax above the proposed amount only because the pending arrears of this tax are not shown.
“If the arrears are added, the house tax collection is around 23 per cent which is not healthy and that is why the Auditors say that the financial position of the panchayat is critical,” he said.
The villagers asked the panchayat to issue Demand Notices to all those who have to pay House and Trade tax and further suggested to publicly display names of those who have not paid taxes for more than five years.
The villagers were also upset when it was disclosed that many files are pending for more than four months in the BDO basically because the engineer provided to Guirdolim is available only once a week.
The villagers lamented that the BDO has not visited their panchayat though it is mandated by the law.
The total disregard shown by the Railways to the local body was also condemned and the panchayat was asked to provide Rs 1.5 crore for actually mapping the Nacasana Lake that is allegedly destroyed by the Railways.
As it was revealed that the panchayat does not have a Gift Deed made in its favour for the land where the panchayat ghar is proposed to be constructed, the panchayat was asked to first get all the Gift Deeds executed.
The panchayat was asked to provide Rs 75,000 towards organising the Guirdolim Panchayat Cup instead of showing it as a donation of Rs 50,000 to a club. Besides, the panchayat was asked to organise an all Goa Mando Festival with a villager John D’Souza volunteering to organise it.
Before presenting the budget to the gram sabha, a special committee comprising Savio Antao, former deputy sarpanch Brian Pereira, Domnic Cardoso, Ronaldo Moses, and John D’Souza met to finalise it.
