Gonzaco Rebello finally succumbed to political pressure and wilted to the citizen’s cry in Margao and tendered his resignation before the Director of Municipal Authorities at 12.45 pm on Tuesday. Post that hour, political activity in Margao escalated.
The residents of Margao, led by Advocate Rajeev Gomes, heaved a sigh of relief, the Fatorda-Margao MLA duo Vijai Sardesai-Digambar Kamat began the complicated maths to arrive at a sum of eleven and underdog-turned-champion former MMC chairperson Arthur D’Silva waited to bowl a googly.
Ego clash that began the downfall
Rebello, who was propped by D’Silva as chairperson, and served as MMC chairperson for eight months put in his papers for personal reasons and cited non-cooperation of Chief Officer Naveen SL in his resignation letter. The relationship between the IAS officer and Rebello ran into rough waters after the CO declared a structure owned by the chairperson as illegal in Mungul and in a first for Goa, called for demolition of the sitting chairperson’s structure.
The ego clashes continued. Rebello accused Naveen of being pro-builder and corrupt taking kickbacks for construction licences while he ignored issues of hygiene and sanitation in the city. The CO said that the Council was incompetent and didn’t look into development.
Rebello took this to his 20-member Council, got them to protest against the CO and demanded the latter’s transfer. Naveen responded by going on leave and refused to meet the councillors though they screamed saying the CO is ignoring their grievances.
In came the citizens of Margao led by activist and lawyer Rajeev Gomes. He led a group of over 100 persons to the MMC council meeting and showed support to the CO and stated that the CO should not be transferred as he is pro-people. The meeting went down well with Madgaonkars and people felt good about the awakening.
Rebello took another step and used his political connections to get the Urban Development Minister to stay the demolition order on his structure. He not only left Naveen red-faced but delayed demolition till another hearing on April 28. D’Silva, who held the reins for 18 months through 2012-13 and is believed to be the man who defied the Vijai-Digambar camp to get Rebello elected, was also left irked and wanted Rebello gone as the municipal elections are just five to six months away. The Vijai-Digambar duo felt this was vendetta time to defame D’Silva and his group of 11 and began the toppling games.
Planning political future
As the focus over the last five years has been toppling games and personal issues, Margao has been suffering. Like Valmiki Faleiro wrote in Soaring Spirits, his book on Margao, “The town is going through changes and living lives and is yet to attain Moksha which is the end of this vicious cycle when someone does good deeds.” Margao is going through bad development, crumbling infrastructure and lots of criticism but the municipality is busy, work in progress in intense political games.
“Gonzaco may have realized that things were not really going his way and it seems to be the reason why he resigned. We’ll have to apply our minds to get someone to the chair again for Margao’s better governance. Margao saw a lot of encroachments being cleared during my term. I want that kind of function now,” D’Silva said.
Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai, who tried to wrest control over the municipality said it’s a belated move and Rebello should have gone much earlier. “Caesar’s wife should be above suspicion and going by that adage, the first citizen can’t be embroiled in illegal construction,” he said.
Sardesai stated that he is known for strong statements as the tenure of these councillors are at the fag end, he wants to conclude that in their 5-years of studying garbage and going on junkets they have turned into garbage themselves.
“The people’s campaign and your newspaper’s ability to keep the pressure seem to have finally evicted Gonzaco from the chair. I am more ashamed because I canvassed for most of this dead rubber and here we are left with a group of shameless 20 councillors similar to our shameless State government,” Sardesai said.
He said he will start a Kejriwal-type of campaign asking people’s feedback on the 20 councillors and asking people’s suggestion on what they want from the new Council. His political ambitions, he admits, are post November 2015 in the next Council.
Nelson Fernandes, restaurateur and activist from Margao who first came out to protest against the chairperson and his move to get the CO transferred stated that all the councillors should be probed for illegal constructions and the chairperson should have resigned earlier for an impartial inquiry.
“It seems that the ruling BJP that sided with this chairperson and stayed his illegalities is the one that put the pressure to make him go as they were left embarrassed,” stated Fernandes.
Similarly, Cedric da Costa, a young Margao resident who contested against Digambar Kamat a few years ago, said it dawned on Rebello that this was the end of the road and hence he resigned. He’s, however, elated that the people have woken up.
But the man who seems to have the last word is the former Chief Minister, and six-time Margao MLA who feels that Rebello should have resigned earlier. An excited Digambar Kamat sought to know what Rebello’s body language and reactions were like.
“This Council has spent all its energy getting a new chairperson every 11 months or even less time. As CM my government through Sushila as chairperson gave this Council Rs 3 crore to carry out development works and then another Rs 2 crore as grants for development works. They removed her as chairperson and said the new BJP government will now sanction Rs 50 crore for Margao. Forget 50 crore, they have failed to utilize what I had sanctioned. This council would have performed better if they consulted me and Vijai on development but they never took us into confidence,” Kamat said.
He was quick to admit that neither he nor Sardesai have the numbers to get a Chairperson of their choice and as such he will distance himself from the MMC.
