Team Herald
MARGAO: Requesting the Margao Municipal Council (MMC) Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes to refrain from processing the proposal of the GWMC on the basis of the Standing Committee Resolution No 3636, the members of the Shadow Council for Margao (SCM) claimed that the same is illegal and invalid and warned that any attempt to bulldoze through the double priced GWMC’s biomethanation project at Sonsoddo would compel them to take legal remedy to safeguard the funds of the public exchequer.
The delegation compromised of SCM convener Savio Coutinho, Arch Carlos Gracias, Flory de Melo, Domnic Coutinho, Sameer Gaonkar and Zaved Shaikh.
In a formal complaint to the CO, SCM members stated that the Standing Committee resolution stands invalid as the committee has no powers to decide on the proposal costing over Rs 43 crore.
“The biomethanation project should have been a subject matter for the Council to decide and not the Standing Committee”, Coutinho said adding “Even the discussion on the proposal at the Council meeting on 22/10/20 was for the confirmation of an invalid resolution of the Standing Committee”.
“The GWMC and MMC tried their best to misguide the public by stating initially that the extra cost was on account of costs for construction of sheds and retaining wall, when the fact is that these items were estimated separately. Subsequently, they stated that the extra cost was attributable to the five-year operations and maintenance costs, which also happened to be included in the GSUDA proposal of Rs 2.29 cr. So far as the Council and the GWMC do not provide proper justification over the double price of their scheme, we cannot permit them to touch the Council funds,” Coutinho added.
