NESHWIN ALMEIDA
It’s 5pm and kids run to the park in the Municipal garden but all they get are broken poles, damaged and dangerously hanging solar panels, CFL bulb shards on the ground, alcohol bottles strewn in the bushes besides broken walls, collapsed trees and a ripped fencing with dangerous edges. That’s exactly the condition of the Margao Municipal garden located opposite the Margao municipality.
There are two ends to the garden one maintained by the Forest Department while the other by the Margao municipality. The end that the Margao municipality manages is in shambles.
“This garden is located in my ward and should have been an icon to the city. Since I was elected I have been raising issues of the garden and have taken up the matter but nobody has done anything to improve the garden,” says MMC Ward 14 councilor Damodar Naik.
Naik says that the topic has come up for discussion at every municipal meeting and resolutions have been taken and committees set up but no avail and MMC only promises to look into the matter.
But MMC Chief Officer Y B Tavde blames the committee and Naik and asserts that they have done nothing much to study the matter or find a solution. “I asked for a ground report, I have appointed an individual to tell me the exact position of the lights and wires in the garden and all the details but neither the councilor nor the committee have done much to improve that garden,” stated Tavde.
“First, MMC used that space to dump scrap and seized goods, then encroached material was dumped there, then garbage cans were kept in that space and now wires hang dangerously. MMC is least interested in maintaining a garden which works as the lungs of the city and the only place where our kids can play,” stated Nicole Fernandes, who used to frequent the garden earlier but doesn’t do the same now.
But the MMC Technical Department blamed and passed the buck on cops who fail to keep anti-socials away from the garden at night and stated that MMC and its staff are not available after 4pm which makes matters worse.
