Team Herald
Margao: The Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardessai while admitting the Margao Municipal Council had failed to deliver time bound services to the people due to the lethargy of the officials has announced a slew of steps to be taken to improve the functioning. The Minister has even threatened to transfer staff while reiterating the need for a common cadre in municipal staff.
After listening to people’s complaints about their files not being acted upon for months and sometimes even years, he asked the council to immediately appoint two persons on contract to deal with the taxation issues including transfer of tax and all kinds of taxes like trade tax and house tax.“Within a month after the Ganesh festival all the pending cases of taxation should be cleared otherwise I shall be forced to take some stern action,” he said while wondering why people should suffer and made to come time and again to the council.
He asked the council to also appoint a legal officer who will advise the council on all legal matters every day instead of sending the files for legal opinion where they languish for months.Setting a target of inaugurating the multi storeyed parking lot by 30th May 2019 the Goa Statehood Day he asked the council to explore the possibility of reviving the old tender instead of cancelling it and calling for fresh tenders at that process will take about three months and will then be hampered by the code of conduct that will be in effect for the Lok Sabha elections.In fact,Vijai called the contractor who was in Belgaum and asked him to meet him on Thursday to discuss the matter. “I am confident of getting the tender revived and it will save time,” he said.Responding to the various complaints he said the solution to all the problems was a common cadre for municipal staff and while pointing out that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had even promised it on the floor of the House, he said the process to set it in place will be started now.
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Nothing changes
10 months after he visited the Margao Municipal Council there appears to be no great change at the ground level and Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardessai got an opportunity to play to galleries by threatening to transfer or sack some municipal staff. When he had visited the MMC on 6th November 2017 he had directed the council and the traffic police to clear the municipal land near the railway overhead bridge of the Dada cranes parked there. When it was pointed out that the cranes continue to be parked there he asked Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik to look into the matter.Following complaints from people in Borda that they are not getting regular water supply, Vijai did laugh at the excuse of no supply from Selaulim that was given by the engineer. However, he said this could not be the reason and opined that the distribution network of the PWD had collapsed and said he would look into it.Some citizens who asked for slabs on the gutters were promised the same within two days and reacting to the case of a complaint filed on 6th May 1966 still pending with the council, he asked the Chief Officer to call the parties and work out a solution.
