South planning panel being reconstituted
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JULY 18
The process to reconstitute the defunct South Goa District Planning Committee has got underway.
Elections to the DPC from amongst the South Goa Zilla Panchayat members was held, wherein six members were elected unanimously and through consensus.
After the withdrawal of ZP members, Maria Miranda and Pradeep Desai from the fray, ZP members Nelly Rodrigues (Colva), Krishna Velip (Cola), Domnic Gaonkar (Raia), Anthony Rodrigues (Velim), Aparna Bhoj Naik (Sancoale) and Rashmi Lambor (Dharbandora) were elected to the South District Planning committee.
The elections were conducted by the Presiding officer and ZP CEO N S Navti in the presence of South Goa ZP Chairperson Maria Rebello.
The DPC was not reconstituted after elections to the Zilla Panchayat held earlier this year. The chairperson of the Zilla Panchayat is the Chairperson of the District Planning Committee.
Incidentally, though the District planning committees were constituted nearly a decade ago, none of the committees in the last 10 years have submitted any consolidated plan to the government for consideration.
The DPC is required to consolidate the plans received from the Panchayat and Municipal bodies, besides the Zilla Panchayat and forward the same to the government for allocation of funds to the panchayat raj institutions.
Sadly, the statutory district planning committees have failed to consolidate any plan till date for want of any guidelines from the government and the lack of will from the powers that be to devolve powers and functions to the district and village Panchayat bodies.
