The way in which appeals against an order of the Panchayat or a delay in issuing licences are handled is very different between Kerala and Goa. In Goa, the individual can approach the Deputy Director at the District Level. If he is not satisfied with the Deputy Director’s order, he can appeal before the Director of Panchayat followed by the District Court and then the High Court. In the case of Kerala, any person aggrieved with the Panchayat’s order can approach the Tribunal. If he is not satisfied with the Tribunal order, he can file a review petition before the Tribunal, and if that fails he can approach the High Court. Which is a better and more efficient system?
Advocate Mildred Mendonca from Margao feels that if there a tribunal with a dedicated judge would be better, however, he says that there would be a huge amount of expenditure involved. “The tribunal will need staff, stationeries, premises and other things that will cost a lot. Dedicated allocation of duty to the Deputy Director and Director should solve the problem. Directors who preside over cases should be given election duty or any other duty that will delay the cases.”, he said
According to a senior official in the Directorate of Panchayat of Goa, if the department has to expand, we must have administrative tribunal since the Director is responsible for administrative and other departmental duties as well as presiding over cases. “The post of Deputy directors and Assistant Director posts were created only to handle cases and they don’t have to do any other work. The problem is with the cases before the Director. The Director of Panchayat has to preside over cases every day. On Friday the Director presides over 30+ cases in South Goa alone.”, said the official.
But the real question is the Independence of the presiding official. Judith Ameida, an activist from Colva, says that a tribunal led by a judge will not succumb to political pressure. “The Deputy Directors and Directors of the Panchayat have to tow the line of the Ministers if they want promotion or their choice of transfers. If they don’t, they are transferred. Everyone knows the bureaucracy is hardly independent”, says Almeida
Goa far behind other States in E Gram Services
E-Gram is a platform where citizens can access all the services of the Panchayat as well as other departments. eGram centers are established in village Panchayats and are equipped with a broadband internet connection, PCs, scanners, printers, Webcams, VoIP phones etc. In Gujarat the project is called eGram Vishwagram Project under which 14,006 eGram centres are established in the State.
In Kerala, Pampakuda Panchayat was the first to launch egram services in 2014. Besides providing e-services to its citizens, the platform has proved to be a valuable tool in generating real-time data on any parameter such as education levels, employment rates, disease, etc which has helped the Panchayats to plan their budget and resource allocation accordingly.
In Goa, there is no formal proposal by the Government to set up eGram centres across Panchayats in Goa. Sources say that there is Directorate of Panchayat was working on a pilot project in Mormugao taluka, however, there is little information available about the project. “We are far behind other States”, said the official.
