Welcome to the taluka offices of the Block Development Officers (BDOs) in South Goa. Visit any of the five offices in Salcete, Mormugao, Canacona, Quepem and Sanguem and don’t be surprised to hear complaints of a collapse in the panchayat administration at the taluka level for want of the BDOs.
Through a strange coincidence, and perhaps for the first time in panchayat history, all the five taluka offices of the BDOs in South Goa are being manned and looked after by overburdened joint mamlatdars in the absence of the regular BDOs. Not that the BDOs from down South have struck work, but the Directorate of Panchayats simply has no BDO grade officers at its disposal to take charge of the taluka level BDO.
That the BDO shortage has hit the panchayat administration has become amply evident by the fact that the five South Goa BDO offices were being looked after by just two officers. And, the present crisis facing the BDO offices has arisen as these two BDOs have proceeded on sick leave.
Take the case of the Salcete and Mormugao BDO offices. Inquiries have revealed that the affairs of these two offices were looked after by Salcete BDO M S Mardolkar. For months now, Mardolkar was shunting between the Mormugao and Salcete offices, despite several complaints that the BDO was neither in Margao nor in Vasco. Ever since Mardolkar proceeded on leave, the government has given additional charge of Salcete block to Joint Mamlatdar, Margao John Fernandes and Mormugao block to Joint Mamlatdar, Vasco Vomod Dalal.
The situation in the three blocks of Canacona, Quepem and Sanguem is no better. Inquiries have revealed there’s no BDO heading these offices ever since BDO Uday Prabhudessai, who was holding charge of Canacona, Quepem and Sanguem, proceeded on sick leave. While the BDO offices of Canacona and Quepem are now being looked after by the respective taluka Mamlatdars, the charge of the BDO Sanguem office is entrusted to the Sanguem Municipal Council Chief Officer.
There are complaints that the absence of the BDOs has hit the administration at the offices.
While the Joint Mamlatdars, sources said, are clearing the routine correspondence, hearings have come to a halt with adjournments as the stop gap Joint Mamlatdars are only giving dates to the parties.
When Herald contacted Panchayat Director Gurudas Pilarnkar to shed light on the unprecedented situation plaguing the BDO offices in South Goa, he attributed it to the shortage of BDOs. “The Directorate of Panchayats is today in need of around 15 BDOs to meet the requirements. The Goa Public Service Commission has recently conducted examinations for the posts and things should hopefully turn for the better after the government completes the recruitment process,” Pilarnkar said.
He conceded that the adjournments have become a rule at the BDO offices in South Goa rather than an exception in the absence of the full-time BDOs, but exuded confidence that the situation would normalise in a month or two.
