Margao: A six-day trip by members of the North Goa zilla panchayat to Indore and Ujjain to study Indore’s famous waste management model has invited sharp satire from within the ranks.Nilesh Kambli, who represents the Sirsaim ZP constituency, commented on the ‘study tour’ by referencing a political joke by former chief minister Ravi Naik on administration meetings: “While ZP meetings were earlier reduced to ‘chai piya, samosa khaya (drank tea, ate samosas)’, we can now safely add ‘aur ghumke aya (and roamed and returned)’ to the routine,” Kambli said.He questioned the purpose of such tours when local bodies lack the authority to implement what is learnt. “Instead of going on a study tour, spend the money on development works,” he said.Kambli said the annual constituency budget is capped at Rs 50 lakh, and that constructing just five gutters over two months exhausts the fund. “What are we supposed to do for the remaining 10 months?” he said.ZP study tours have previously been conducted by North Goa and South Goa ZP members to locations including Kullu-Manali, Amritsar, Chandigarh, and New Delhi to “study local governance”. A 2015 trip by South Goa ZP members included a missed meeting with Sonia Gandhi. Members later said the trip was largely a holiday.Santano Rodrigues, convener of the Panchayati Raj Institutions Union, said devolution of powers and funds to second-tier panchayat bodies has not occurred despite govt assurances to the high court. “Zilla panchayats and district planning committees have become white elephants in that there is hardly any work being done by these bodies. Govt has totally failed to enforce the mandatory provisions under the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution of India,” Rodrigues said.
