Margao: On the day state govt celebrated National Panchayat Raj Day with a function at Kala Academy in Panaji, the Goa Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) Union was in no mood to celebrate.The union demanded that the order passed by the high court, securing panch members’ right to inspect panchayat files be implemented across all 191 panchayats in Goa by May 1, the panchayat rules be amended to make gram sabha decisions binding across all 29 subjects under the 11th Schedule, and any future celebrations be held in villages rather than govt auditoriums.The PRI union said the April 28 HC direction — ordering that all panchayat members should be given access to panchayat files between 10am and 12pm, seven days in advance — was a reminder of how far the state had drifted from the promise of the 73rd constitutional amendment.It took an opposition panch to approach the high court to secure what should have been a democratic right, the union said, questioning why panchayat minister Mauvin Godinho had not issued a suo motu circular earlier.The union also flagged that gram sabha resolutions on land use, fallow land, biodiversity heritage sites and panchayat biodiversity registers carried no binding force, with the town and country planning department routinely overruling panchayat decisions , it said, undermining even the state’s own “No Fallow Land 2027” mission.Convenor J Santano Rodrigues, who also heads the Curtorim biodiversity management committee, said Curtorim held its own observance on April 23 at the union library — with panchayat members, farmers and students gathered around a working gram sabha — in contrast to what he called “portraits and felicitations” at official events.
