Over the years, Margao has emerged as a capital of civic problems, not befitting a town which calls itself the commercial capital of Goa. But as we look back at 2017 and look ahead at 2018, there are some major unresolved pitfalls. Yet on the bright side there is some hope of their resolution in 2018. We lost some of them with the assurance that as always, Herald will be a watchdog for this historic town and its people.
One of the problems faced by MMC in 2017, was that it did not have a dedicated chief officer for nearly six months even though it is an ‘A’ class municipal council and that is probably the reason why many of promises have remained unfulfilled.
For one, the taxation section has been very lax in collecting taxes due to which the tax arrears were to the tune of nearly Rs 16 crore of which Rs 10 crore were the arrears from the House Tax itself. But now that the MMC has been given a dedicated chief officer who has also been given a directive to do away with the tax arrears, things appear to be moving at last.
The Chief Officer, Johnson Fernandes, has formed a taxation group comprising of officials of the taxation section and started a pilot project in the Ward Nos. 1 to 6 of MMC where these officials visit each house and collect the house tax. In 12 days the group has collected Rs 54.50 lakh as taxes and this has encouraged the council so much that the same exercise will be carried out in other wards. “Definitely with such drives the tax collection of the council will improve,” said a very happy Vice Chairperson Tito Cardoso.
Besides, the MMC has also written to the Electricity Department to disconnect electricity connection granted to 16 builders for their projects as these builders have not paid their taxes amounting to nearly Rs 5 crore.
Even though the builders claim to have sold the premises and the taxes should be collected from the purchasers, Chief Officer Johnson Fernandes is confident of extracting the money due to the council.
The MMC till date is not even aware about details like number of shops, their owners, whether they are on lease or sold, etc, with regards to the three markets under its jurisdiction, namely Old Market, New Market and Gandhi Market.
However, Tito was confident of the situation changing once the Panjim-based party starts carrying out the GSI survey of the New Market. “The tender is already awarded and he will start work in Ward No. 14 first which has the New Market,” he said.
The Pay Parking proposal for the commercial capital of the state has been hanging fire for years now. The foundation stone for a multi storeyed pay parking at the old fish market site was laid on September 15, 2015, where 112 four wheelers and 42 two wheelers would be parked.
However, though the tender to construct the premises was bagged by Manan Construction from Maharashtra, work has not yet started as there is some dispute over who pays the GST that was introduced after the contract was awarded.
“We have sought a clarification from the government and if the bidder does not agree to what is suggested then we may have to retender the whole project,” said Tito thus indicating that there will be a long wait for this project to see the light of the day.
The long pending need of Margao to shift the petrol pumps away from the heart of the city will continue to remain unfulfilled as work on preparing the Outline Development Plan for Margao is yet to commence and the area where the pumps are to be shifted has to be demarcated in the ODP.
And while the shifting of the pumps is still awaited the MMC Chairperson Dr Babita Angle Prabhudessai has convinced the petroleum companies to clear some of the huge arrears that were pending for many years now and the MMC coffers are all set to receive the arrears before the end of the current financial year.
And though the residents of Davorlim, Dicarpale are protesting against the shifting of the schools from Margao to their village to de-congest the town, according to Tito this project is in the nascent stage and will take some time.
