The Sagar Kawach activity last week was an eye opener that Margao lacks security from all kinds of threats. The fact that the Close Circuit Cameras of Margao are not functioning is a reminder of how vulnerable we are to the threats like terrorism, robberies dacoities and other issues. Presently most of the CCTV cameras from the town are non functional. The recent Sagar Kawach activity at Margao Municipal Council has opened a can of worms where in the Chief Officer has agreed that except for a couple of them none of the cameras inside the MMC and outside the MMC are working.

The Chief Officer Yashwant Tawde while speaking to reporters said "We received the fax of bomb (as part of the Sagar Kavach mock drill) planted within premises and did all the necessary things" said Chief Officer.

The Chief Officer of MMC, Tawde said d "Out of 54 cameras maximum are defunct. When I joined here I had put up the work of maintenance of the cameras to the council. The matter has been deferred for discussion at the earlier occasion" said Chief Officer.

Promising to raise the issue at the next meeting the Chief Officer said that the CCTV's have in the past been helpful to keep encroachments at bay. Speaking on the CCTV's within the MMC "Some of the cameras are working and as per my information the section Cameras are not working. This is due to financial problems" the Chief Officer said.

He further infirmed that the Director of Municipal Administration has been informed of the financials of the Municipal bodies of Goa and it is being heard that the GSUDA will be anchoring the request to funding IT technical maintenance of Municipal bodies with the help of NIC" Chief Officer added.

On Saturday the entire staff of MMC ran out of the building after the bomb scare. None of them even sensed that a mock drill may be under way and left for the day when they got this news.

Only the MMC Chief Officer remained within the premises. A similar Sagar Kawach activity was also carried out in the secretariat in Porvorim, where a  fake bomb was “detected”.

The Chief Officer after getting the fax on Saturday informed the Police and also the District Collector. The police and bomb disposal squad did their part according to the prescribed duty.

However, this incident has given some important lessons and raised some important questions which need to be answered by the district administration. Lessons need to be learnt from this incident and the city has to be prepared if the mock threats ever become real.