Team Herald
PANJIM: As the six-member delegation of city Corporation led by Mayor Uday Madkaikar landed in Croatia, their unannounced absence has created flutter in the council.
Madkaikar, Deputy Mayor Pascoela Mascarenhas, Commissioner Sanjit Rodrigues, corporator Margarida Coelho, engineer Shrikant Lawande and a junior staffer are on a week-long tour to Croatia. The delegation had left on Monday night and is expected to resume work on Monday, December 16.
In Goa, none of the councilors are aware why the delegation has gone to Croatia. In fact, the councilors, who came to know through the office boys, were not even informed about the visit.
Former Mayor Shubham Chodankar requested not to question him about the tour as he himself came to know from the office staff. “I am absolutely not aware,” he said.
Another senior corporator Menino Da Cruz said, “Forget about taking the corporators into confidence, but not even an official note was moved to inform us about the visit and the purpose behind it. “The Corporation business runs as per wishes of Mayor and Commissioner. The council is just for name sake,” he said.
When tried to contact, none of the delegation members were available for calls. However, as per social media post by Mayor, the visit seems to be with regards to Smart City and AMRUT Mission.
In one of the photo, posted by the Mayor, the scope of the visit is said to strengthen EU-India cooperation among selected cities as well as between the national level and the European Union, on sustainable urban development, while contributing to India’s Smart Cities, AMRUT and other national and international sustainable urbanization processes.
