Tito Cardozo, in 2010, won by a margin of just 20 votes against big names including former councillors D P Naik, Ramdas Hazare and Camillo Barreto in a ten candidate election. He made a foray into politics after his father lost the Assembly polls in the year 2002. Cardozo looked at the opportunity of becoming an MLA aspirant and started working full swing as a councillor. The road contractor turned politician made available grass cutting machines, harvesters, tractors, mango pluckers, labour for odd jobs, free asphalt patches in the by lanes and bush cleaning squads. Name it and Tito Cardozo would provide for the voters. But he didn’t take the MLA route in the 2012 election and took a step back to become election agent for M K Shaikh after Vijai Sardesai was denied a ticket. But when Vijai became MLA, the youth Congress leader was immediately in the Vijai panel and has sailed that boat till date.
Tito Cardozo, an ST leader does boast about connecting 95% of his ward with the underground sewerage line and building an open space garden in the ward, besides getting a recent sanction of Rs 24 crore for development of a ground and other infrastructure under the ST funds which would on other occasion’s lapse. The councillor also takes credit for developing the Monte steps beside Hospicio hospital through MPLAD funds when Francisco Sardinha, his father’s peer was MP, South Goa.
But Tito’s 6,000 voter ward which is the largest ward amongst municipal wards in Goa has it fair share of problems. Huge amounts of garbage from the buildings complexes and multiple housing societies, the stray dogs menace across the ward, erratic door to door garbage collection, release of sewage in the storm water drains in certain ST dominated areas, growing traffic and parking problems with the city expanding into Borda is the tip of the iceberg for Borda residents. Another fear is Tito’s close allegiance with the Borda chapel and its plan to construct a church by relocating into a large low lying agricultural field that is still being cultivated by the local ST population. They fear Tito for political interests may collude with the chapel and encourage this construction in the agricultural land.
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Herald: You seem to have a garbage problem in your ward?
Tito Cardozo: I have told the MMC on various occasions to look into the garbage management and door to door collection and even intervened when garbage was not collected. But the plant seems to have operational problems; hence sometimes the door to door garbage collection fails. Also the MMC needs more infrastructure and a truck to collect dry waste separately. We hope all this is put in place soon.
Herald: What about the sewage menace where it’s left in an open gutter?
Tito: I agree that Borda had a problem like this. But in the last few years I have installed underground sewage rage networks across the wards and got people to connect to it on a small fee. Almost 95% of Borda is connected and the rest are yet to connect.
Herald: How easy is it to get projects passed for your ward?
Tito: It’s not easy actually. There are no funds coming from the DMA. Recently I got my first project from DMA to build footpaths and develop some areas of my ward after four years. I mostly depend on MPLAD, SC/ST funds or pump in my own money.
