Two committees were formed when the new Margao Municipal Council met for the first time on Tuesday. The members of the Market and Library committee and Garbage and Sanitation committee were elected unopposed, while the election of the important Standing Committee of the MMC has been kept for Wednesday.
Confusion prevailed during the brief meeting over procedure for the election of Standing Committee and how to shorten the process which generally takes up to six hours. The situation arose as there were seven nominations for the six-member committee.
As there was one extra nomination the meeting time was extended by 15 minutes and the meeting then adjourned after none of the councillors withdrew their nominations. The meeting has now been scheduled for Wednesday at 4.30 pm.
Rupesh Mahatme, Arthur D’Silva and Tito Cardozo requested the Chief Officer to brief the Councillors on the conduct of the election and then go ahead or simplify the procedure. “The election of the Standing Committee is a tedious task and needs to be simplified by writing to the government. The fact that the vote of every councillor is value based is a hitch and needs to be clarified to all the councilors,” Cardozo said.
The Market and Library committee will be headed by Vice Chairperson Dorris Texeria and have Glen Andrade, Jose Fernandes, Zita Crasto and Manoj Masurkar as members, while the Garbage and Sanitation committee which will have Chairperson Babita Angle, Tito Cardozo, Lyndon Fernandes, Kutubuddin Bhagewadi, Damodar Naik and Manoj Masurkar as members. The councillor to chair this committee hasn’t been selected and this will be done by the committee members.
