South Goa ZP committee has not met even once, leave alone preparing draft development plan
MARGAO
Are the constitutionally-mandated District Planning Committees destined to be confined to the record books when they enjoy a pre-eminent status under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment in the district planning process?
The dust raised over the Assembly election has finally settled and the voters and candidates alike anxiously awaiting the verdict on March 10. Sadly, a year has passed since an elected South Goa Zilla Panchayat had assumed office on January 8, but the constitutionally-mandated District Planning Committee (DPC) has not even met once in the last one year, leave alone preparing a consolidated draft-district development plan.
During the last one year and two months, as many as five Chief Executive Officers had presided over the South Goa Zilla Panchayat. And, the ZP CEO, who is the ex-officio Member Secretary of the South Goa District Planning Committee has not even once called a meeting of the panel to set in motion the process or deliberate on an action plan how to go about formulating the draft development plan.
Take note, the South Goa ZP body had elected members on the DPC immediately after assuming office. The DPC was then notified by the government on the official gazette around July 22. It’s now exactly seven months since the DPC was notified in the official gazette, but not a single meeting of the panel has taken place till date for reasons best known to the DPC Chairperson and the Member Secretary.
Then South Goa ZP CEO G Kuttikar had told The Goan that he has not called for a meeting of the DPC since he wanted to first hold a training session for the DPC members before going about the work of preparing the draft-district development plan.
It’s another matter that Kuttikar has since been transferred out of the South Goa Zilla Panchayat. His successor, Florina Colaco too could not take the process forward during the last month and half after the election code of conduct came into force in early January.
When The Goan called her up to shed light on the fate of the delayed District Planning Committee meeting, Colaco only said she is going through the plans received from the panchayat bodies before calling for a meeting of the DPC to finalise the plan.
“I have taken cognizance of the process which was set in motion in the past. The DPC had received a host of plans from the panchayats, which are being scrutinised,” Colaco said, while promising to soon convene a meeting of the DPC meeting.
Interestingly, a DPC member pointed out that leave alone preparing the draft-district development plan, the DPC Chairperson or the Member Secretary should hold at least one meeting of the DPC, not only to set in motion the planning process, but to seek views of the members, anxious to share their experience.
A DPC member in private said the Chairperson or the Member Secretary should at least convene one meeting to take the planning process forward.
The Goa Panchayat Raj institutions have slammed the powers that be for continuously derailing and sabotaging the district planning envisaged under the Indian Constitution. Goa PRIs convenor, J Santan Rodrigues lamented that successive Zilla Panchayats in South Goa have derailed the constitutionally-mandated District Planning Committees to sabotage the bottom-to-top planning.
“It is indeed sad and shocking that no meeting of the South Goa DPC has taken place till date. What is even more shocking was that none of the DPC members, including the MLAs and MPs from the district have deemed proper to insist on a meeting of the planning body,” Santan said, while hoping against hope the new set of elected MLAs to the Goa Legislative Assembly will at least take the DPC process to its logical conclusion.
