TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: In a complete U-turn, Margao Municipal Chief Officer Deepali Naik on Friday withdrew the stop work order issued by her office on Thursday to stop transportation of mud from the Sonsodo waste dumping yard.
That’s not all. A day after the chief officer had told Fomento to pay damages to the civic body for transporting mud without permission, the chief officer on Friday, however, said that it would be in public interest to allow the mud to be used for the proposed road construction, going to the extent of saying “otherwise, it is of no use to the council and the council does not have sufficient place to accommodate the mud.”
In fact, in her note put up to the Council, the chief officer said that the mud would automatically clear the venue at Sonsodo without any expenditure by the council. What’s more, the chief officer noted that the project at Sonsodo has been financed by the government in toto, adding that the Council may take up the matter to the appropriate government level if it had any objection over the transportation.
Sources in the know say that the chief officer’s U-turn came after the government authorities took serious note of the stop work order issued to Fomento by the Council. It is learnt that the government had been inquiring about the sudden stoppage of the mud transportation since Thursday evening as the mud was being used by the PWD for the ongoing Nuvem road bypass.
In the past, the government as well as the district Collector, N D Agrawal had unofficially requested the MMC chief officer to supply the mud generated at the Sonsodo garbage dump for the bypass road construction. Incidentally, the chief officer stated in her note that she has no objection to allow the mud transportation in public interest, adding that the company had taken permission from all the stake holders.
