Team Herald
MARGAO: Just 15 villagers attended the Rumdamol gram sabha on Sunday morning. The sarpanch was absent for the meeting. Only five of the seven panchayat members attended the meeting. Besides the reading of the minutes and accounts, the panchayat body did not place any proposals for discussion.
One villager raised the issue of a rickshaw pick-up which the previous panchayat body had purchased. The rickshaw has been missing for more than a year. The present panchayat body claimed that they don’t have any record of the rickshaw.
One gram sabha member informed the panchayat that he had given a proposal to the panchayat last year to take up the issue but they didn’t take it up. After some discussion, the issue remained unresolved. The secretary claimed that the minutes cannot be recorded since the government has instructed not to take up Any Other Business (AOB). However, he said that he was only allowing a discussion over the issue.
After the gram sabha, villagers informed Herald that earlier the panchayat hall used to be full for the meeting, but now nobody comes for the gram sabha because their issues are not taken up.
“Many people in Rundamo who have issues are uneducated and are illiterate. They are not able to write. So how can they submit proposals?” questioned Damodar.
Another villager said that people are fed up since no issues are taken up and people who do are harassed by the panchayat who target them by sending notices. “There is no health center in Rumdamol; there is lot of revenue coming to the panchayat since there are many shops in housing board but there is no development,” he said.
Herald confirmed with the Deputy Sarpanch Madukala Shirodkar that there were no proposals on the agenda on Sunday and that the Sarpanch Sadia Shiek was absent due to personal reasons.
