Team Herald
PANJIM: Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) has held the Smart City agency responsible for the flooding that the State capital is facing during the current monsoon.
Upset with the haphazard work being carried out by the Imagine Panaji Smart City Development Limited (IPSCDL), Mayor Uday Madkaikar demanded that the government sack the agency’s Managing Director Swayandipta Pal Chaudhuri and handover the charge to an IAS officer.
“Time and again I have had to intervene and stop their works ahead of the monsoon and subsequently demand that the roads be reinstated. However, the areas wherever they dug the roads under the Smart City project and reinstated them, all has been washed away. The city is flooding because of the haphazard work they are carrying out,” he stated.
The Mayor further said that the residents of the capital were unaware of the projects that the IPSCDL is carrying out and therefore Panjim MLA Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate had scheduled an interaction of the agency’s officials, citizens and CCP corporators.
“On Friday after discussing with Chaudhuri, the MLA had scheduled the meeting today (July 1) at 3pm. However, at the last minute he (Chaudhuri ) declined to attend and cited the Chief Minister’s directions. It is very clear from this that he does not want to be transparent. He should have come and informed the public about the projects,” Madkaikar added.
Taking a dig at the projects handled by IPSCDL, Madkaikar said that while the city is reeling under the garbage problem, the Smart City is only concentrating on CCTV cameras. “When the city is facing a huge garbage issue, will only installing cameras make it smart? Instead of the Rs 180 cr on cameras, the same could have been spent on the Bainguinim plant and we would have a solution to treat the city’s garbage,” he said.
The Mayor also pointed out that election after election St Inez Creek has been an agenda in the manifesto but despite the problem existing for three decades, there has been no solution to clean and beautify the creek.
