Leave alone powers and functions, many a village panchayat is struggling for a full-time panchayat secretary, notwithstanding the assurances handed out by the panchayat minister that not a single Panchayat body will be left without a full-time secretary.
Convenor of Goa PRI and former Curtorim deputy Sarpanch, J Santano Rodrigues said both the chief minister and the panchayat minister have no time to strengthen the Panchayat Raj institutions in the State. “Unlike mining, Panchayat Raj institutions are certainly not on the agenda of the government. Powers envisaged in the Panchayat Raj Act are confinement to the book. Funds promised under finance commissions have not flowed down to the Panchayat Raj institutions,” he charged.
Santano, who had staged a token hunger strike at the Secretariat on the eve of the Golden Jubilee year of Goa Panchayat Raj, lamented that nothing has changed on the ground over the last two years.
He recalled that the then advocate general had given an undertaking to the High Court that the government will table the report of the 2nd Finance Commission. “This assurance was given to the High Court on March 8, 2010. Till now, recommendation of the 2nd Finance Commission has not been implemented, while the government has till date not appointed the 3rd Finance Commission. No one knows the fate of the committee which was promised by the advocate general on the Finance Commission,” he added.
