the goan I network
MAPUSA
Former MLA and ex-chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council, Phyllis Faria of Morod-Mapusa passed away after a brief illness on Thursday. She was 93.
The last rites will take place at St Jerome’s Church Mapusa on February 24 at 4 pm.
An eminent educationist and social worker, Phyllis Faria along with Sulochana Katkar and Sangeeta Parab were nominated as members of the Goa Legislative Assembly for the first time in 1985.
Pratapsingh Rane, the then chief minister of Goa, then a union territory, had nominated the three women as MLAs.
“Although she was not elected, she was definitely an MLA of Goa nominated by the former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane,” said Surendra Sirsat, former Speaker and Mapusa MLA.
Phyllis Faria was appointed as chairperson of the Project Implementing Committee-Bardez in 1966, where she served for eight years.
In 1970 she was elected as councillor of Mapusa Municipal Council and in 1973 was elected as the President of the Mapusa Municipal Council, thus having the distinction of being the first lady in Goa to hold this post.
She was also the President of North Goa Mahila Congress.
In 1990, she was appointed as a Chairperson of the Goa Handicrafts, Rural and Small Industries Development Corporation Limited. She was again the first lady in Goa to hold this position.
She headed the Corporation for 10 years and was actively involved in the development and promotion of Goan crafts and the welfare of the crafts persons in the State.
Faria was also served as chairperson of the Juvenile Welfare Board and State Social Welfare Advisory Board, and also as Vice-Chairperson of Sanjay Centre for Special Education and as a Director of the Bal Bhavan.
She was nominated as chairperson of the Managing Trust of Sacred Heart High School Parra, was the Hon. Secretary of the Industrial and Handloom Co-operative Society Panaji, Director of Mapusa Consumers Co-operative Society and Hon. Secretary of the Indian Council of Social Welfare Goa Branch.
