SATURDAY, JULY 27, 2024
Team Herald
MARGAO: A group of Margao citizens on Friday accused the staff of a political leader of unlawfully removing hundreds of files from the Margao Municipal Council building. However, the Chief Officer of the Margao Municipal Council denied these allegations.
Addressing a press conference, Adv Snehal Onskar, Carlos Gracias, Lalan Parsekar, Maria do Carmo, Camilo Camara, Sujata Parsekar, and others urged the government and the Urban Development Ministry to make this practice illegal. They suggested allowing all applicants to carry their applications and files along with them until the process is completed.
Onskar displayed video footage of files being brought in bags, pointing out that while entry records show 192 files being submitted, only a hundred files are now in the Council building.
“The Chief Officer should explain where the remaining files disappeared, and how files are allowed to be taken outside by someone who is not even an applicant,” she stated.
Carlos Gracias alleged that the Chief Officer of MMC, in order to please his ‘superior’, was arbitrarily charging house tax and sanitation fees for only one year, despite circulars clearly specifying that taxes from February 2018 should be recovered. He warned that the Chief Officer would bear all the losses caused to the Municipal treasury.
Responding to the allegations, Chief Officer Gaurish Sankhwalkar refuted the charges levelled against him and the civic body. “The allegations pertaining to the files are false. The civic body is keeping track of all the files. We don’t allow anybody to interfere with the documents that belong to the civic body,” he clarified.
