“Our city needs our people. Let us unite together in the name of ‘Margao United’ to form vigilance committees in every MMC ward,” Advocate Rajeev Gomes said.
“Members of the vigilance committees will help initiate development work, inspect work undertaken and watch out for corrupt activities in their ward. A legal team will extend support to them at all times,” Gomes added.
The group referred to the recent Supreme Court judgment which stated that municipal councillors come under the category of public servants and hence can be prosecuted for corrupt activities under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
“The citizen group will try to gather data of illegal gratification received by councillors, commission received for awarding work contracts, duplication of work, bills paid for non-executed work, payment of inflated bills, illegal resolutions, disproportionate assets, as per our sources,” said Adv Gomes.
The group plans on using this data to file complaints against councillors with the Anti Corruption Branch of Goa Police of the Vigilance Department.
“If no action is taken by them, we will approach the Special Court for registration of an FIR. But we will ensure that in a matter of few months corruption will be reduced drastically in Margao,” said Adv Gomes.
The group plans to widen the scope and also proposes to inquire into corruption in the Electricity and PWD departments as far as Margao is concerned.
