ZP team eyes pleasure trip. Oops! study tour

MARGAO, NOV 17
If the Finance Department accords the final go ahead signal,  South Goa Zilla Panchayat members could well be on a pleasure jaunt camouflaged as a study tour to the North Indian States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, besides Delhi from the first week of December.
That past members of the Zilla Panchayat body had toured these States in the last five years – on the pretext of studying the Zilla Panchayat pattern of these States – has not stopped the incumbent members from planning the tour once again to these States.
South Goa Zilla Panchayat Chairperson Maria Rebello was frank enough in admitting that the package tour is being worked out by her office to these States. And, she says that if everything works out well, the Zilla members could well take off from Dabolim on December 5 for the tour of the northern States.
An estimated budget of Rs 10 lakh has been worked for the proposed tour. While the tour has got approval from the government, only the final nod of the Finance Department is being eagerly awaited to book the air tickets to the national capital.
Right now, it is still not clear how many members will be part of the team to participate in the tour, though the chairperson says that most members have confirmed their participation.
Says Rebello: “Though the tour estimates works out Rs 10 lakhs, we may receive a grant less than the estimated amount. The position would be clear within a day or two”.
Incidentally, ZP members from South had proceeded on a “study tour” just before the end of their term in February, after the government sanctioned the financial grant following hard lobbying by some members.
When Maria’s attention was drawn to the fact that ZP members had in the past toured the North Indian states during their term, she said that the previous tour has nothing to do with the present members.
Sadly, while ZP members from the South have been on study tours to the other States at the cost of the public exchequer, no one knows for sure the number of reports compiled after the tour and whether the studies have helped the district panchayat body to get additional powers and functions from the government under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment.