It stated that the panchayats are under pressure as villagers are questioning them on what they have done with the infrastructure grant, which they haven’t even received yet.
In an indirect dig at former panchayat ministers Laxmikant Parsekar and Dayanand Mandrekar, the union alleged that only panchayats from the constituencies of past panchayat ministers and other BJP ministers have received the grants.
It also refuted Arlekar’s statement that the Octroi grants to the panchayats have been pending for a year and claimed that they have not been receiving the same for many years. It also pointed out that as per the last structure, they receive only 0.75 of the 2 percent Octroi grant, while the balance is split between the ZP and municipalities. The union called for the structure to be revised.
Regarding the statement that normally Rs 3-4 lakh are given to the panchayats based on proposals sent to the directorate of panchayats, GPRIU and the Salcete Panchayat Forum (SPF) stated that several proposals sent to the DoP have been gathering dust.
GPRIU and SPF slammed the DoP and government for not only failing to look into several of their memorandums appealing for better coordination, funds and other changes, and into files sent by the panchayats from Salcete regarding developmental project proposals. They also claimed to have problems while clearing the salaries of the staff.
SPF had held meetings with the Block Development Officer and Deputy Director of Panchayat to complain that forming estimates for basic development work get delayed and in some panchayats, the work orders have still not been issued.
GPRIF, in the statement, concluded that the State government should focus on providing better administration and ensuring that there is smooth and quick processing of all matters related to the panchayats.
SPF also wondered if the promise of providing secretaries to all panchayats will be fulfilled given that the same had been promised in the past and the DOP recently deputed gram sevaks where there are no panchayat secretaries. It also questioned if this would just lead to haphazard transfer of secretaries and other government staff working at the panchayats.
