Margao: While state govt celebrated Senior Citizens’ Day on Thursday, the state council and district committees meant to safeguard the welfare of elders under the senior citizens’ act have been non-functional since the tenure of the earlier bodies ended in March 2025.Sources in the social welfare department said the file for reconstituting the committees has been with the minister for social welfare for a long time. With no functional committees, grievances of elderly citizens remain unaddressed. Minister for social welfare Subhash Phal Dessai chose not to comment on the matter.The state council and district committees have been set up under Chapter VII of the Goa Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, 2009, framed under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.Under Rule 21, govt may establish a state council to advise it on effective implementation of the act and rules. The council is chaired by the minister in charge of senior citizens’ welfare. Its members include secretaries of departments dealing with disabilities, senior citizens’ welfare, health, home, publicity and pensions, besides specialists, activists and eminent senior citizens nominated by govt. The director of the directorate of social welfare is the member secretary. The council is required to meet at least once every six months.Rule 22 provides for a district committee to advise on effective and coordinated implementation of the act at the district level. The committee is required to meet once every quarter. Its composition, the tenure of non-ex-officio members and rules of procedure are to be specified by govt.Roland Martins, convener of civic forum Goacan, said that with the main platform for senior citizens to seek justice lying defunct, govt will do well to reconstitute it at the earliest. “The quarterly meetings are actually the place where you have to deal with all the complaints and their intervention. This is the main platform mandated under the central Act with state rules,” he said.
