PORVORIM: From the Rs 100 Crores allotted to various Municipal authorities in 2017-18 across Goa only Rs 25.5 Crores has been utilized. Panjim, Margao, Mormugao, Ponda, Mapusa and Curchorem were allocated 5 Crores whereas the other municipalities were given 2-3 Crores. Mapusa and Curchorem were given 20 Crores each and Bicholim was given 10 Crores a special grant for infrastructure development.
Even though it is known that clogged nullas cause flooding in Panjim and other towns, the municipal administration did not utilize the 1.5 Cr under the scheme. JNNURM is a central scheme for taking up infrastructure projects of garbage, parking lots, desilting and beautification of St Inez Nulla etc in Panjim town. However, no expenditure was incurred in 2017-18 from the Rs 150 lakh outlay. Out of the Rs. 10 Crore provided for construction of a new Panjim Municipal office, no expenditure was incurred due since the CCP did not submit the proposal. On the other hand, the government has spent Rs 82 Cr of the Rs 100 Cr on Panjim Smart City Mission and Rs 53.29 Cr of the Rs 70 Cr of the AMRUT scheme.
Rs 40 lakhs was provided for creating awareness among the public on environmental issues, garbage management etc in municipal area but no money has been spent. Rs 2.35 Crores and Rs 2 Crores were provided for E-Governance in Urban Local Bodies and Supply of Fixtures maintenance of street lights but no expenditure has been incurred. GSUDA spend less than half of the Rs 80 lakhs grants given to the Authority.
Jose Marie Miranda, a former banker from Fatorda slammed the Margao Municipality for their negligence. “Keeping aside the cleaning of gutters and partly the garbage issue, what else is the municipalities doing?” he questioned. “There are already charging sanitation fees which is more than the house tax when these funds are available.”. When asked what could be the reason for not using state funds instead of charging people for sanitation and garbage, he responded by saying that either the municipality is negligent or else they don’t want a CAG audit done. If Municipalities utilize State funds they are audited by CAG which is not the case if they utilized the funds collected from residents in the municipal area. He also slammed the municipalities for not utilizing golden jubilee funds
