Panaji, January 9, 2015 … The Governor of Goa Smt. Mridula Sinha recently held a meeting with Sarpanchas of North Goa to discuss with them various measures to be implemented for keeping the Village Panchayat areas clean as part of the Swatchcha Bharat, Nitoll Goem campaign.
The meeting held at Raj Bhavan was also attended by Minister for Panchayats Shri Dayanand Mandrekar, Secretary (Panchayats) Shri P. Mathew Samuels and Director of Panchayats Shri Gurudas Pilankar and all Sarpanchas of North Goa.
In her opening remarks the Governor underscored the need to keep areas in villages clean which she said is a constitutional obligation . She said the Panchayats should involve everyone especially voluntary organizations in this important task of Swachcha Bharat, Nitoll Goem campaign.
The Governor further said that in order to keep village areas clean there is need to develop necessary infrastructure for disposal of garbage and for this thorough involvement of Sarpanchas is necessary.
The Governor expressed happiness that Goans are committed to work toward the Swachcha Bharat programme and hoped that Goa would become the number one state in this campaign.
Panchayat Minister Shri Dayanand Mandrekar said the various issues raised by Village Sarpanchas will be looked into by the Government. He said the main issues are identifying places for dumping/disposal of garbage on the roadside needs to be looked into.
The Minister expressed happiness that such a meeting has been held to create awareness among Sarpanchas on various issues of cleanliness and thanked the Governor for taking such a initiative.
The meeting discussed at length issues like Health and sanitation, cleanliness drive by respective village Panchayats, effective enforcement of legal provision to arrest the trend of illegal garbage dumping on roadsides, provision of toilets wherever required, involvement of villagers in Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan, funds for collection of garbage, and various other issues related to cleanliness drive.
Dr. N. Radhakrishn
