Team Herald
MAPUSA: The councillors from the ruling panel of Mapusa Municipal Council took Chairperson Shubangi Vaigankar to task for giving a month’s extension to the garbage collection contractor without taking the council into confidence.
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Ruling and opposition councillors minced no words and deliberated on the heated issue for a long time before settling it.
The ordinary council meeting was convened by Chairperson Shubhangi on Monday during which several issues including sopo collection and garbage management contract were discussed.
The door-to-door waste collection from Ward No 1 to 10 was outsourced by the municipality to a private contractor whose contract had expired on August 28.
As the term of the contractor had expired, the chairperson sanctioned an additional amount of Rs 10 lakh and extended his contract for another month without taking the council into confidence much to the annoyance of the other councillors.
Objecting to the issue, Councillor Sainath Raul slammed the chairperson for not taking the councillors into confidence while Councillor Vishwas Salgaonkar demanded that the extension granted to him be terminated as the chairperson had no locus standi to take arbitrary decisions involving huge financial implications.
The chairperson tried to get out of the tight corner and said that the hasty decision had to be taken in the interest of the town as Ganesh Chaturthi was around the corner.
After a heated discussion, the council decided to grant an extension for a month for the contractor and start the process of appointing a new one.
In a special council meeting held last month, it was decided by the council to collect sopo during Ganesh Chaturthi. However, it was collected by the contractor.
The council demanded that action be initiated against the contractor for collecting Rs 150 and 200.
The Chief Officer said that a show cause notice will be issued to the contractor on this matter.
