MARGAO: Buoyed by the response to the dramatic step taken to seal establishments that had not paid their taxes for many years, the Margao Municipal Council has prioritised three activities that it will focus on in 2019 and will even go for disconnecting power and water supply if certain requirements are not complied with.
Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik told media person that in the first place, the council aims to collect revenue to the tune of Rs 100 crore from the taxes which has been accumulating over the years. In fact, during the current year, the chief officer launched a concerted drive to mop up revenue which was quite successful.
Business establishments that had not paid their taxes since 2009, including financial institutes like banks, were identified and raided and this resulted in Canara Bank paying Rs 23.88 lakh to the municipality.
Besides raiding the establishments, the council also sealed some establishments in the month of November 2018 and seeing that the council was serious about its tax collection many establishment owners began making a bee line to the council to settle their dues.
Collection of segregated garbage from all households in the municipal area is the second target set up. Presently, segregated garbage is being collected from the 11 wards in Fatorda constituency of the council and though the system has started in Margao too it is yet to function smoothly.
In Fatorda, the segregated waste is lifted also separately, while in Margao, waste is collected collectively and hence the segregation done by the households ends up being mixed by the labourers collecting the waste or when it is transported to the garbage dump site.
Siddhivinayak said that he would impress upon the people to hand over segregated waste to the municipal staff that collects the waste and that he would set in place a mechanism to collect the wet and dry waste separately in dedicated vehicles.
He said that the council would also concentrate on connecting to the sewerage network specially the commercial establishments. “While the recent ones are compelled to take the sewerage connection without which we do not give the licence, it is the old establishments that have not taken the connection and are proving to be problem now,” he said.
The chief officer said the council would go in for disconnecting the electricity and water connection if the sewerage connection is not obtained. He said that he would be very strict with this.
