PONDA: It appears that the COVID pandemic has put spokes in the completion of Ponda Municipal Council’s (PMC) two projects namely the market complex building at Upper Bazaar and the golden jubilee building at Sadar.
It may be recalled that the ambitious market complex building was inaugurated nine years ago. However, 80 percent of shops and offices in the market complex building are still not functional due to various reasons. These reasons include incomplete building, vendors refusing to shift to this complex with the fear that it may not fetch customers as there are no toilets, lift, etc.
After Ponda MLA Ravi Naik raised the issue of the pending projects in the Assembly last year, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant inspected the market complex building and assured to complete the complex and open it for vendors before Ganesh Chaturthi. It’ been a year the work is still pending.
PMC chairperson Venktesh Naik said, “The Chief Minister is fully cooperating. However, COVID pandemic has halted the work as there was circular banning work on government projects till December. Prior to this, former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar had inspected the market complex building and had issued directions to complete the work. However, the work is pending due to several reasons. Since nine years there is no much income generated from this project. Only few shops on the mezzanine floor, some fair price shops and the municipal library are operating from the building while 80 per cent of the shops are non-operational.”
Naik said, “As assured, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had permitted us to utilise Rs 1.5 crore each for completing the pending market complex and golden jubilee projects. We even tendered the work of both the projects and got them approved from the DMA. However, when we sought approval from Finance Department, there was circular which stated that government aid and grants have been stopped till December 2020.”
