It appears as if politics is log jamming the development of the capital city. Herald looks at two issues – pay parking, which is the need of the hour and the streamlining of the municipal market, which is in dire need of a major revamp. These issues have been debated for more than a decade, but all these agitated discussions have yielded no concrete results
TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: The politics of the Corporation of the City of Panaji with regard to implementation of the pay parking proposal which has been hanging fire for years, can best be underlined by the decisions of various ruling groups. The present council has cleared a watered down pay parking proposal for the city after the opposition put the brakes on their proposal.
Case in point: The minutes of the ordinary meeting of the CCP convened by the then Mayor Vaidehi Naik on 24/1/2013 state that at the CCP meeting on 17/8/2012, the corporation resolved to introduce pay parking along various roads in Panjim city and certain areas were suggested to start pay parking. “The decongestion proposal was drawn up as per the suggestions given by the corporators and the public and was discussed in the corporation meeting held on 23/10/2012 and approved in principle. A detailed working on pay parking has now been worked out as Phase 1 and is put up before the corporation for its approval to kindly pass an appropriate resolution so as to enable the corporation to forward the same to the Collector (North Goa) district, Panjim for notification,” the minutes state.
The CCP approved the proposal for introducing pay parking along various roads in Panjim earmarked in the plan submitted to the corporation with minor changes, the minutes further document.
Even earlier, according to the minutes of the 17/8/2012 meeting, the corporation agreed to initiate pay parking in following areas among others. But the pay parking proposal was never implemented. The same proposal was passed by the present council some time ago but has been kept in limbo after the chief minister intervened amid opposition from BJP corporators and market vendors. The plan appears to be to prepare a comprehensive proposal and implement it in a phased manner.
