Team Herald
PANJIM: With Congress party blaming the government for non-performance, PWD Minister Ramakrishna Dhavalikar on Monday held a marathon meeting with opposition MLAs, directing the officials to ensure that proposals of works in constituencies represented by them are placed before him on or before May 25.
Plan and non-plan works worth Rs 18 crore in each constituency represented by these MLAs is pending before the government since January. Except for Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes, all other 15 MLAs attended the meeting.
The meeting was called following a request made by Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavalekar to discuss pending development works in their constituencies.
Speaking to Herald, Kavalekar said the meeting was fruitful and that the PWD Minister was positive towards clearing the proposals. “Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar in December, last year, had held a meeting of all Congress MLAs and had directed us to submit the proposals worth Rs 15 crore plan work and Rs three crore non-plan works. Accordingly, all the MLAs had submitted proposals,” he said.
“However, till date, not a single proposal has been cleared. The reason for delay is attributed to GST implementation,” he said.
Kavalekar said the Minister has issued directions to the officials to ensure that all the proposals are cleared and kept on his table for final approval on or before May 25, failing which action would be initiated against the officer concerned. “We are hopeful works will start from next month,” he said.
MLAs also discussed issues relating to JICA-funded work completion, sewerage system, water problems and building construction works. Kavalekar and Margao MLA Diagmbar Kamat urged the Minister to ensure that JICA-funded work be completed at the earliest and that the roads damaged are repaired before the monsoon, to avoid fatalities.
