TEAM HERALD
VASCO: Vasco MLA Carlos Almeida lashed out at the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) for not extending him support with regards to the municipality’s fish market project. He claimed the project would have started by now if the councillors had helped him allay the fears of the fish vendors and locals.
Almeida had promised the fish market to Vascoites in his 2012 election manifesto, but the project was stalled after fish vendors objected to it. No progress has been made for the last three-and-a-half years.
“The fish market is the property of the municipality, which is collecting sopo from the vendors. I was only making serious attempts for speedy commencement of the much needed project. Apart from a few councillors, majority of the council members, especially the seniors, never came forward to support me. This project is yet to see the light of day despite getting all approvals from the government,” said Almeida.
He continued, “It is the duty of every councillor to ensure that such public-oriented projects are given importance. However, the MMC councillors failed. I had to personally meet the people and vendors. I had to take help from industrialists and others to come up with a modern fish market to replace the old one near Dr Ambedkar junction in Khariawada.”
On the issue of grants received by the MMC, Almeida said the councillors’ claims of making hard efforts to seek government grants for development works were incorrect as the MMC failed to submit the utilization certificate for the grants they had received earlier.
“The MMC councillors should acknowledge that the moment I was elected as an MLA, the MMC was given huge grants. However as MMC failed to complete formalities, including submission of utilization certificates, the administration could not release further grants. Also on December 12, 2012, DMA had issued administrative approvals for Rs 3.82 crore grants for purchasing several trucks, compactors, garbage bins, etc, however, the same grants were never used,” said Almeida.
Almeida added that there were technical issues with the e-tendering process at the time of purchase, but the same could have been sorted out. He said, “The MMC cannot blame the government for the delay as the same is done by the Council.”
