Nine months down the line the newly inaugurated Sanquelim Municipal Council is still an unused building with people feeling that the development has been hindering due to internal politics.
It may be recalled the government inaugurated the newly constructed Sanquelim Municipal building on October 31, 2016 at the hands of the then Chief Minister, Laxmikant Parsekar and in the presence of deputy chief minister, Francis D’Souza, local MLA Dr Pramod Sawant and others.
But even after the inauguration the building has become a white elephant. The municipal office is still working in rented premises while no attempt has been made to shift the 46-odd shops in the new building. The people have now started feeling that it is waste of public funds by the government which is just constructing buildings without prior planning.
The Sanquelim Municipal Council chairman, Dharmesh Saglani, when contacted blamed the government and said it was the responsibility of the government to see that all facilities were provided before the building could be inaugurated.
“It was all done in a haphazard manner taking into consideration the vote bank politics and the building was inaugurated when there is not even a chair to sit,” Saglani said, “there is no TCP compliance certificate, lights, water, neither lift transformer for the building. All the other municipalities have the required furniture but this building has no furniture. Without occupancy certificate the building is not fit to be occupied.”
“We have approached the GSUDA for providing the facilities and it is under process. We feel that incomplete building was inaugurated which is of no use,” Saglani stated.
The speaker and Sanquelim MLA, Dr Pramod Sawant said the SMC just wants to involve in dirty politics and that is the reason they are not ready to shift into the new premises.
“We have given them the new building now it was their look-out to follow up with the DMA and other authorities for the required facilities. One phase of the building has been completed and the second phase should have been taken up by the SMC. We have developed the master plan and it should be implemented by the SMC,” Dr Sawant charged.
Meanwhile, during a recent visit, CM Manohar Parrikar has assured that all steps would be taken so that the SMC shifts to the new premises. He also asked the DMA officials to look into the matter and do the necessary arrangements so that all the shops and the municipal office could be shifted to the new premises.
But, only time would tell as to when these assurances would be fulfilled.
