Team Herald
VASCO: The State government has cleared the pending development files of the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) after councillors threatened to boycott ordinary meetings.
Long-pending files pertaining to projects worth Rs 3.75 crore in all the wards of the MMC were cleared by the Directorate of Urban Development.
The clearance came as a relief to Mormugao chairperson Girish Borker and other councillors, paving way to undertake various development works in all 25 wards.
Last month, 14 councillors had abstained from the ordinary council meeting, as they were upset over delayed approvals of their development files by the Directorate of Urban Development and they had also threatened to boycott the next meeting if these project files were not sanctioned.
Borker said that the situation in the council had become heated with the development files pending for so long. He said that every councillor was under pressure from their residents, asking them why no development works were undertaken in the town.
According to Borker, the clearance of files was delayed due to signatures as ruling party Ministers and MLAs have been campaigning in Maharashtra elections. At the same time, Borker who had claimed that “all is well” within the councillors after the meeting held on September 19, said that he too was prepared to boycott council meetings if the files were not approved by the government.
“Though I am the chairperson, I am also a councillor. I stood with them and agreed to boycott next council meeting if the development files remained pending and were not cleared,” he said thanking the local MLAs for taking up the matter with Urban Development Minister Vishwajit Rane. He further informed that all development works will now start soon.