Team Herald
MARGAO: Only half of the villagers attended the Raia gram sabha on Sunday as the panchayat approved the surplus budget with many locals attributing the poor attendance to “lack of publicity”.
As was the normal practice, the villagers claimed that the gram sabha notice was not announced at Mass last Sunday.
Former Sarpanch Xavier Fernandes had complained to the Block Development Officer about the mandatory notice period not being adhered to with regards to the gram sabha and other villagers raised the same matter on Sunday at the meeting.
The secretary read out the budget and the same was declared approved following two gram sabha members proposing and seconding the motion even though the budget proposals were not discussed by the villagers.
The panchayat had submitted a surplus budget of Rs 1,09,89,175 with total income of Rs 94,05,000 and an opening balance of Rs 1,70,51,175. The total expenditure was pegged at Rs 1,54,67,000 with major expenditure of Rs 80 lakh on public works.
While the panchayat has projected Rs 1 lakh as grants for garbage management from the government as it proposes to collect Rs 6 lakh towards garbage management by way of garbage tax.
As the budget was not discussed threadbare at the gram sabha, villagers Maria Vales and Francisco Fernandes, who had submitted points for discussion at the gram sabha, did not raise the same and accused the panchayat of bulldozing the budget through the gram sabha.
