TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Salcete village panchayats on Tuesday urged the government to take all necessary steps to restore powers to the panchayat bodies as per the Constitutional mandate, while underlining the urgent need for sharing of revenue collected by the State.
In a memorandum submitted to Panchayat Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Tuesday, panchayat representatives have called for devolution of powers by December 31, 2013, as per the recent Supreme Court judgement failing which the All Goa Panchayat Forum has threatened to approach the courts.
The memorandum stated that the panchayat bodies lack adequate financial resources and hence cannot achieve much on the development front. “The Central and State governments have not provided us with powers. The attitude of the bureaucracy towards the panchayati raj institutions at different levels of management and coordination is not very useful,” the memorandum stated.
While calling for appointing of full-time secretaries to each of the panchayat bodies, the memorandum stated that secretaries are not qualified, while underlining the need for trained and qualified secretaries of higher grade. The panchayats also demanded common cadre for panchayat employees, with a suggestion to the government to bear the staff salaries.
Meanwhile, the sarpanchas of Rachol and Raia, Joseph Vaz and Xavier Fernandes, conveyed their strong opposition to the proposed Rachol-Shiroda bridge, saying the same will destroy fields and create traffic chaos on the village roads.
