Team Herald
PONDA: With the five-year term of 186 village panchayats in the State comes to end on June 19, and the State government is ready to appoint administrators to look after the affairs of panchayats, out of the 19 panchayats only eight sarpanchas have completed their full tenure in Ponda Taluka.
Many panchayats in the taluka witnessed instability during the five-year tenure with either change in sarpanch or deputy. The locals feel that the development works have halted due to the musical chair game for the post of sarpanch for various reasons.
Thus the locals feel that the governing bodies instead of becoming stronger are getting weaker and not able to take up the development works expected by the villagers.
“Due to instability, some panchayats were felt behind in the development works including the garbage treatment plants, which is need of the hour due to growing urbanization,” they added.
Reacting to the Ponda locals’ contention, Durbhat-Agapur Village Panchayat Panch Mashal Adpoikar said, “This is a wrong belief that due to change in sarpanch the development works are halted.”
“The reasons for instability or change in the sarpanch were several, such as the desire of every panch to become a sarpanch, political pressure and sharing of tenure to enjoy sarpanch’s post beside other reasons,” he added.
Out of 19 panchayats, many saw change in either sarpanch or deputy sarpanch in the five years, while strangely eight sarpanches held their post for the full term. These panchayats include Shiroda, Talavalim, Kavlem, Durbhat-Agapur, Querim, Bhoma, Vere-Vagurme and Bethki Khandola.
Social activist and environmentalist Sandeep Parkar said, “Curti-Khandepar Village Panchayat saw eight sarpanches in five years tenure. Due to change in sarpanch and deputy, the development works expected by the villagers were not fulfilled.”
He said, “The panchayat has acquired 18,000 sq mts of land for performing final rites for Hindus, Muslims and Catholics but the land is not properly divided nor there is a proper system in place to conduct final rites of Hindus. Therefore, the Hindus are relying on the Ponda Municipal Council for final rites.”
He also said that despite there’s a demand for bus shed at OPA- Khandepar junction, the panchayat has failed to conduct proper follow-up due to which hundreds of students are forced to stand by the roadside waiting for the bus after school hours. Similarly, the Khandepar villagers are demanding ground for the sportspersons. However, it could not be fulfilled.
Parkar said, “Frequent change in sarpanches has halted the development works.”
However, Panch Adpoikar says the development works cannot be halted due to a change of sarpanch.
He said, “Every panch has to conduct follow-up of his ward’s development works file with the Block Development Officers. Nowadays, all are educated and if every panch gets an opportunity to become a sarpanch he will learn more about his duty and panchayat affairs. If MLAs or ministers believe that all panchas support him then he should not insist to keep panchas of his choice for a full five-year term.
As the State government has recommended the State Election Commission postpone the panchayat elections, administrators will be appointed till the OBC Commission carry out the task of holding a triple-test for reservation of wards for the Other Backwards Classes.
