TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Pandemonium was literally the order of the day at Wednesday meeting of the Margao Municipal Council as the city fathers yelled, laughed, cracked jokes as they assembled in the municipal hall to transact business listed on the agenda.
An angry councillor Joseph Silva even came rushing towards the Chairperson Dayanand Deulkar after he flung the meeting notice as he demanded action against encroachments at the Santas Almas Chapel. Joseph pointed accusing fingers at the Chairperson for patronising a vendor selling lotteries at the chapel, even as Chief Officer Deepali Naik insisted that the Parish Priest of the local church has issued NOC for the vendor. “You go by municipal rules and not by the dictates of the church. Remove the vendor from the chapel premises since lotteries cannot be sold at a religious place”, Joseph said.
The issue generated much heat amongst the councillors, with the city fathers making a fervent plea not to give the issue a communal and religious colour, saying that there cannot be room for encroachments irrespective of the place of worship.
Councillor Sadanand Naik was at his usual best as he was found vocal while participating on discussions on anything and everything. Naik took centre stage when the issue of Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) came up for discussions.
His councillor colleagues were repeatedly heard pleading with Naik to tone down his voice and maintain decorum at the meeting even as the city fathers finally decided to defer the DPC matter in view of the controversy. The municipal technical section came under fire from the city fathers, with some even accusing the officials for extortion. They demanded that the administration maintains a check on the functioning of the engineers saying the technical section has earned a bad name from the citizens for harassment and extortion.
The meeting, which commenced at 4 pm continued for well over three hours, with the meeting unable to arrive at decisions on most issues for reasons best known to the city fathers.
