Savio Coutinho was the youngest Chairperson that Margao ever had and he had two terms in the saddle. After a 15 year rule as councillor of ward 16 from 1995 to 2010, the ward changed to a reserved ward and the onus was on his wife to carry the baton.
Savio remembers how he won his first polls in 1995 by 375 votes and went on bettering that record, but with pride he shares with us how in 2010, he won the election in ward 16 by 1,480 votes and that too the highest margin across the 20 municipality wards.
Pratima, a lawyer by profession, turned politician in 2010 to replace her husband in the ladies reserved ward. She is believed to see many victories from there including that of youth Congress president and that of being deputy chairperson of the Margao municipality.
Representing the Navelim section of the council and ward 16 that consists of Sirvodem, Chinchal, Calcondem, Ratwado, Colmorod and Santeri, Pratima had a lot of things to put right.
Sayed Alisha, a Fakirband resident tells us how almost 85 garbage collection workers work in the ward and was an initiative of the Coutinhos which started seven years back. It has kept the ward 95% garbage free.
The husband-wife duo have a rickshaw that they purchased themselves which is used to collect garbage in the semi urban village ward and the ward doesn’t depend on the council that has failed to provide dustbins.
Pratima tells us how dogs and cattle would make a mess and that the nearby villages of Chinchinim and Assolna and on the other side, even Varca and Benaulim people would come and throw their garbage in the ward and make the place filthy, especially behind the Navelim church. Hence they eliminated the bins in the ward and worked on a system themselves to collect the garbage door to door.
Another Ratwado resident points out that Savio has focused on getting radium markings on the GSIDC roads and speed breakers and focused on proper water supply to each house and flat which is another plus point of the Coutinho family.
“We had a huge stray dog menace and Savio had started an initiative and was the one to start the dog shelter in Sonsoddo. Pratima went one step ahead and inaugurated the mission rabies mobile van from ward 16 wherein 8,000 stray dogs from ward 16 and the vicinity were sterilised and vaccinated to prevent rabies,” exclaimed Chris Dias from the ward.
