Margao: The South Goa administration has stepped up pressure on panchayats to complete pending works under the Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin) 2.0, with continuous follow-up being carried out to ensure timely closure of the backlog, officials said.The directive came at the meeting of the District Water & Sanitation Mission (DWSM), chaired by additional collector-II Ramesh Gaonkar, in the presence of member secretary Narayan S Tirvenkar. The meeting was attended by officials from the health department, assistant conservator of forests, range forest office, information and technology department, directorate of panchayats, block development offices, water resources department and the agriculture department.The directorate of panchayats presented a panchayat-wise status report on outstanding works under the mission, with officials reiterating that follow-up with individual panchayats is ongoing to prevent further delays.The meeting also took up the constitution of Village Water and Sanitation Committees (VWSCs) under the Jal Jeevan Mission and Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin). Two women members are to be nominated to each committee to assist in monitoring water quality, with the directorate of panchayats expected to submit the final list of nominees to concerned departments before the next meeting. Training programmes on water quality testing will follow once the committees are formed.On Jal Seva Aankalan, panchayat secretaries were directed to convene gram sabhas and upload the required data on the central govt portal within the stipulated deadline.
