MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) on Thursday passed Rs 8.17 crore surplus budget amidst chaos and “hollow planning”.
Initially, some councillors questioned holding the meeting during the lockdown to which the chairperson said they got the Director of Municipal Administration’s approval.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
The opposition councillors took the Chairperson and administration to task over the delay in clearing the bills. When the agenda was discussed with regards to resolution for passing the bills, the councillors complained that there were no details of the works and refused to take up the matter alleging that the head of administration had not cleared them.
“Why the discussion? These are old bills. Xerox machine, tree cutting and drain cleaning bills if not cleared by administration means there is something wrong with them,” complained Rupesh Mahatme.
Manoj Masurkar alleged that no work with regards to these bills has been carried out in Margao.
Rupesh questioned as to why the bills of May last year have been pending during Babita Angle’s tenure as chairperson and Siddhivinayak Naik as Chief Officer.
“The bills amounting to Rs 17-18 lakh with regards to JCBs operating at Sonsoddo were paid, said Arthur D’Silva and sought details of the entire functioning of machinery and the bills. “Are the bills genuine or is this a setting?” he asked, to which former chairperson Babita said that the bills pertain to the work of 3 months.
Ketan Kurtarkar demanded for forming a committee to investigate the matter and clear the bills. “If they are pending then there is some reason,” Ketan said.
