MARGAO: A group of Margao residents has expressed serious concern over the misappropriation of Rs 17 lakh from the feast fair, challenging political leaders in the State’s commercial capital to ensure the full recovery of these funds from the municipal staff responsible for the embezzlement.
It may be recalled that nearly Rs 17 lakh, collected as fees from vendors at the recent feast fair, ended up in the bank accounts of municipal staff instead of the municipal treasury.
The residents have threatened to submit official complaints to the Chief Secretary and the DMA, as well as warned of public demonstrations involving taxpayers and residents, demanding the recovery of public funds to ensure accountability.
Suspecting political interference in the investigation process, the residents criticised the police for the delay in filing the complaint and for not taking the municipal staff into custody.
They called upon MLAs – Vijai Sardesai and Aleixo Reginald Lourenco – to take immediate action, given that their constituents contribute to the Margao municipal treasury.
Senior citizen Robert Vaz highlighted the stringent penalties faced by taxpayers for late payment of trade licence fees and questioned whether the civic body would recover the amount with interest.
Savio Coutinho condemned the internal blame game within the Margao Municipal Council, where the Chairperson and the Chief Officer have levelled allegations against each other with regards to the mismanagement of the feast fair setup.
Coutinho demanded a thorough investigation into all financial transactions conducted by Yogeshwar Shetkar, emphasising discrepancies reported in stall allocations during the fair.
