The Margao Municipal Council has, on several occasions in the past, blamed the Government as well as the Directorate of Municipal Administration for not releasing grants and funds. This problem persisted until the new Council, led by the Chairperson Babita Angle decided to defy the “ask the DMA” clause and go ahead with Municipal funds for necessary and essential works.
The MMC had recently initiated a search of all the pending grants and funds received by the MMC for various jobs to be done. These included grants for Land Acquisition, Solid Waste Management, Sonsoddo and others. Other than these, several other grants were lying in the municipal coffers yet to be put to its purpose. MMC Chairperson Babita had ordered the surveying of records of grants and funds received from 1997 till date. The MMC was surprised to find several funds which remained unused for several years.
The Chairperson, at a recent meeting, said, “We have put in efforts to find out grants approved for the MMC. We found out that there are several grants that are remaining unused.” She added saying, “We always felt very bad when the DMA pointed out that there are several grants worth crores which have not been used.”
Now the chairperson has said that around Rs 6.3 crores of the Sonsoddo plant and other projects are pending as the scope of work and others came in between and the work had to be kept pending. It is due to them and we have to pay it to them but the funds are pending due to some legal issue from MMC as well as the Sonsoddo side.
Expressing the problems her Council faced the Chairperson said “We have made several attempts to seek details from the MMC administration to find out the grants remaining but we never got cooperation.”
The MMC has decided to start diverting the grants to the most required areas like the Parking Project and purchase of compactors. The MMC has decided to top up the Rs 3 crores golden Jubilee funds with another Rs 3 crores from the grants and funds lying with MMC. The MMC has also decided to acquire computers from the grants received for the E-Governance. The MMC will also purchase truck and compactor for the Garbage collection from the remaining solid waste management funds.
