MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council passed a surplus budget of over Rs 6 crore, at its meeting on Thursday.
The council also decided to assess illegal houses to tax, hand over the Sonsodo dump to GSIDC for clearing the same and not to go ahead with the earlier bioremediation.
The meeting was chaired by Chairperson Babita Angle, her deputy Dorris Texeira and Chief Officer Yashwant Tawde.
Angle said, “There is a common agreement on cancelling the bioremediation by the private player. With the initiative of the TCP Minister Vijai Sardessai and discussions with the chief minister, we have decided to hand over the dump to the Department of Science & Technology and to the GSIDC for clearance of the dump on the lines of Saligao plant.”
The chairperson said that the MMC and the execution agencies plan to start work by June 1 and clear as much dump as they can to reduce the problems during monsoons.
The MMC has also informed its councillors and the public at large of giving a public notice urging people having illegal houses to come forward and get their assessment numbers from the MMC to continue getting services of the civic body. By this means, the MMC plans to increase its revenue and plug revenue leakage.
The Market Committee meetings and decisions on record with MMC were vehemently opposed by the Councillors after they spotted glaring differences between the resolutions of the Council and the decisions of the committee.
Most of the councillors did not look happy with the budget and called it a “copy and paste” job by the administration. Malbhat ward Councillor Rupesh Mahatme said, “This is A class Municipal Council and we need to have a good budget next time. The fact that the estimated receipts from heads like taxes and rents have remained the same, means that the taxation has to be more proactive in recovering the revenues and find stronger avenues of collections.”
A resolution of not allowing residential and commercial projects without sewage treatment Plant on board was taken by the councillors in view of the ever increasing sewage problem of Margao. The MMC resolved that the STP would be made must for projects over 60 flats. The chairperson said that a meeting will be hosted with the CREDAI office bearers to discuss the same.
The MMC has also resolved to ask for increase in grant of Golden Jubilee fund of Rs 3 crore for the execution of the multi-level parking project at Margao.
An overall increase in the lease of petrol pumps of Margao and also of the various leased properties of MMC has also been resolved by the MMC.
