Countering the insinuation, citizens claim their initiative should be emulated across municipalities and only good can come from the public being present for these council meetings.
Advocate Rajeev Gomes who has been a prominent face at these meetings offered some clarity on this debate. “The Goa Municipalities Act throws open the meetings of the council to the public, which means citizens can freely attend it. Simultaneously it prohibits citizens from interrupting the meeting,” he said.
“As citizens of free India, we have an inherent right to protest and object to all machinations and attempts to steal tax payers’ money. It is our birthright. Opposing illegal actions and resolutions can’t tantamount to interruptions of meetings,” added Adv Gomes.
Regarding the commotion witnessed at both the council meetings attended by the public and if this is the correct precedents, citizens claim that the public would not have been compelled to intervene if the councillors had displayed their credibility and instilled confidence in the people.
However, the larger issue at this point, raised by political observers is that even if the actions of the citizens to participate in such meetings is against the rules, they have a right to attend such meetings. So why have the public stayed away from attending council meetings in the past?
Former state election commissioner Prabakhar Timble encouraged the idea of the public watching the council meeting’s proceedings in the audience and reasoned that under the public gaze, the councillors would take his/her role more seriously. Timble gave the example of the court proceedings where the public can sit in the court room but cannot question the judge or prompt the advocates arguing the case. He further spoke about how in the assembly with the sessions being telecast live, the MLAs are conscious of the conduct as well as attire in the house.
Timble however, criticized the ‘verbal noise’ during the council meetings and said this was not becoming of enlightened citizens whose actions only prove to hijack such meetings and that this would hamper the decision making process which is the objective of these meetings.
Advocate Cleofato Coutinho asked if it is allowed for someone to go to the visitor’s gallery of the legislative assembly or parliament to demand answers from ministers directly. He made it clear that he appreciates the work done by Advocate Gomes in building public awareness and goes on to point out that Gram Sabha type bodies are not in the municipality law but the demand to have such Sabhas might be the answer.
Citizens like Kaushik Dessai feel the intervention in Margao was for a noble cause and it was needed as there was no other alternative.
Both Dessai and Coutinho suggested that the Mohalla Sabhas held in Delhi are such positive examples and that the fact remains that the current city fathers of Margao have failed the town. Another citizen, Baburai Hegde felt it was the right of every citizen to question the councillors and Chairman, and this should take place in all parts of Goa. In this way, one can keep a check on corruption and corrupt practices.
“Eternal vigilance is required at all times for holding our elected accountable. But when it comes to deliberation by the elected in meetings, there is a ‘Laxman Rekha’ to be followed,” added Coutinho.
Agreeing with Coutinho’s view that Mohalla Sabhas is the way forward, Gomes pointed out that he had written to the urban development minister to bring in an amendment making it mandatory for councillors to meet their electors at least every three months.
“It is because we have no other platform to address our grievances that we are forced to attend their meetings and question them,” said Gomes. “The Directorate of Municipal Administration has been bragging about amendments to the Municipal Act for almost three years now and has even taken on board some retired municipal personnel spending a lot of public funds. But results have not been forthcoming still,” added citizen Milton Barreto.
