Team Herald
MARGAO: The meeting of the South Goa Zilla Panahayat was held in the Mathany Saldana Complex on Friday.
As usual, a majority of the issues raised by ZP members were related to the minor project works in their constituency.
One important item on the agenda was the utilisation of tribal funds. While some ZP members wanted to know if they would receive funds for project works in tribal areas, the chief officer informed that the ZP had taken a decision earlier to divide the Tribal funds equally among all members. Every member receives around 2.4 lakh.
Interestingly, the CO informed that the ZP does not prepare a tribal sub-plan in their budget.
The ZP members resolved to write to the government to hand over the funds for constructing toilets under ODF to the Zilla Panchayat. “All the States have implemented ODFs, but only Goa is left. The government had given the project to PWD. Now it is given to Waste Corporation. If you’ll (government) cannot do it, we, the Zilla members will do it,” Nelly said.
ZP members demanded that they want Rs 1 crore funds for each constituency per year. “If MLAs are getting Rs 25 crore, there is nothing for the government to give Rs 1 crore to each ZP member,” said a ZP member.
Nelly Furtado said that if they don’t grant the funds under the supplementary budget, they must boycott the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.
