TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Chief Minister, Manohar Parrikar has claimed that he is contemplating to make the village voter all-powerful viz-a-viz the gram sabha on deciding developments in their respective villages by proposing a plebiscite system.
Speaking after the Cabinet briefing, Parrikar, who is also the Town and Country minister said he would come out with clear guidelines on the regional plan, after which it would be kept open for people’s reactions for a period of 60 days.
“I am making it clear, I will give powers to all voters of the panchayat,” he said stressing, “whatever (developmental) model is selected by the village panchayat, it will be selected… and voting will be done by villagers.”
He, however, hastened to add that, “as of now they are my ideas; and they are not my decisions”.
“Whatever may be the RP, we will superimpose whatever is the panchayat plan,” adding, “This will go as per act…I am trying to make it legal; and once it is done, then within 15 days we will throw it open.”
Saying that the “models” as he called them would be declared first, the chief minister elaborated that he wanted to settle it before the next Assembly session and that he would consult MLAs, stakeholders and NGOs like the GBA. He specified that villagers were free to restrict what they wanted (as far as development of the village was concerned) but once the plebiscite was done then you cannot change it midway, he said.
Basically, the chief minister was clear that he was contemplating on the plebiscite model rather than the Gram Sabha deciding on these issues.
The draft RP 2021 prepared during the erstwhile Congress regime was held in abeyance after the BJP government came to power.
