TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: In a meeting with the sarpanchas of North Goa as part of the ‘Swachh Bharat, Nitoll Goem’ campaign, on Wednesday, the Governor Mridula Sinha has urged village panchayats to rope in voluntary organizations to ensure cleanliness of villages. However, panchayats have not been given any power by the State government.
While speaking to them at the Raj Bhavan, Sinha underscored the need to keep villages clean calling it a ‘constitutional obligation’ while also highlighting the need to develop necessary infrastructure for disposal of garbage.
Panchayats Minister Dayanand Mandrekar, Panchayats Secretary P Mathew Samuels and Panchayat Director Gurudas Pilarnkar were also present. Sinha expressed contentment that Goans are committed to work toward the programme and hoped the State would rank number one in this nationwide campaign.
Mandrekar said the main issues is identifying places for dumping and disposing garbage, and preventing the littering on roadsides.
The meeting also discussed health and sanitation, cleanliness drives in villages, effective enforcement to arrest garbage dumping, provision of toilets, funds for collection of garbage, and various other issues related to the cleanliness drive.
