South Zilla okays budget
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, MARCH 13
The South Goa Zilla Panchayat on Friday passed a 951.93 lakh budget for the financial year 2009-10.
At the meeting held on Friday, which was chaired by Vice-Chairperson Suvarna Zambaulikar, the budget estimates were approved by the district Panchayat body without much discussions and deliberations.
A couple of Zilla members, including Chairperson Cleofacio Dias were conspicuous by their absence.
The total development grants for the next financial year were pegged at Rs 760.94 crore.
The meeting witnessed heated discussion on the bill of Rs 1.42 lakh incurred by the Zilla Panchayat on the repair of the two garbage compactors.
ZP Member Joe Dias demanded to know from the Chair why the Zilla Panchayat had to bear the repair cost when the compactors, handed over to the Mahila Shakti Abhiyan, are operating even in North Goa.
When the chair replied that the repair work was carried out upon instructions from the Director of Panchayats, Joe and ZP member Atul Verlekar demanded to know under which head the payments have been made for the repair work.
They demanded to know why the Director is not sanctioning funds towards the purchase of grass cutting machines and other development works.
The meeting also deliberated on the long-pending issue of Recruitment Rules of the Zilla panchayat employees.
ZP member Joe Dias sought to know the reason behind the delay in finalizing the recruitment rules for the ZP employees.
ZP Chief Executive Officer, Narayan Sawant told the members that the Director of Panchayats have convened a meeting of the Chairpersons of both the Zilla Panchayats to discuss the draft-recruitment rules before they are approved by the government.
