Goemkarponn desk
CALANGUTE: The Calangute gram sabha on Sunday passed a surplus budget of Rs 25,19,50,199 with the income projected at Rs 17,27,82,550 and expenditure at Rs 15,38,20,550.
Many of the budget provisions are lower than in the previous budget as the pending bills have been reduced, Sarpanch Sequeira said.
The panchayat has increased the trade licence fee for rooms in resorts from Rs 2,500 per room to Rs 3,000 to generate more income, while the ‘sopo’ amount for the market has been increased to Rs 15 lakh from around Rs one lakh earlier, he said.
The panchayat has also cracked down on various government departments operating from panchayat properties that have not paid the rent amount in a long time and have collected the pending dues.
It was also noticed that a large number of beneficiaries of the Calangute Village Panchayat’s monthly dole to the poor are fake, the gram sabha of the panchayat
“We made a study, and there were instances where the husband and wife and their two children were named as beneficiaries, and we have cut their names from the list,” Panchayat Secretary Arjun Velip said.
“I was shocked to see that well-to-do people with resorts were taking Rs 700 in monthly dole, which we give to the poor,” Sarpanch Joseph Sequeira said.
“We found that in many families, there were four-five persons each receiving the amount, so we rectified that, and now only one person will get the amount, and this will start from April,” the sarpanch said, adding that they identified a large number of such beneficiaries and also those who were actually in no need of any assistance.
