MMC councillors begin blame game towards end of their tenure

Karsten Miranda

karsten@herald-goa.com

With elections looming ahead and the citizens waking from their slumber, the heat is definitely on the 20 councillors of Margao Municipal Council (MMC).

These group of city fathers are about to end their 5 year term and if one has to take an assessment of their work in their respective wards or their collective contribution to the council, you will only get fingers pointing you in the direction of umpteen government departments they hold responsible for their woes.

This could not have been orchestrated better at their recent meeting held in the chambers of newly elected chairperson, Arthur D’silva where each of the councillors began complaining about how they had been following up on various issues and having done all they could, the system invariably let them down.

The councillors cried hoarse about how their ward residents grab their necks due to incomplete work in their wards but that in reality their hands are tied. Why? Because everyone from the chief officer, previous chairpersons, MMC staff and engineers, PWD, Sewerage, Electricity, BSNL, collectors had not acted on the several written memorandums they had submitted to their offices in the past 5 years.

D’silva himself was seen leading the tirade and showed how his proposals sent to the Goa State Urban Development Agency regarding the construction of pay parking facility that is badly needed in Margao, are still stuck in the drawing room and there is nothing on the ground to show people.

It was ironical that the high powered co-ordination committee that includes Margao MLA, Digambar Kamat and Fatorda MLA, Vijay Sardesai passed similar resolutions as their last meeting two years ago but the garbage management in Margao is still a mess and no one is willing to own up to their faults.

“The surreptitious nature of Tuesday’s 'Special Meeting' itself exposes their dubious agenda. Instead of doing rounds in their wards to begin and inspect pre-monsoon work, these councillors have the temerity of holding this meeting to pass suspicious bills and discuss about painting the Municipal building and fixing air conditioners. All this when people have no basic amenities like toilets, functional drains and good roads? It appears that the councillors care a damn about their voters and wish to capitalise on the last 4 months in a desperate move to rake in unlawful kickbacks for themselves,” said advocate Rajeev Gomes.

In the middle of the hurried meetings last week to examine issues such as door to door garbage collection, capping of Sonsoddo, de-silting of drains, trimming of branches, tax collection, repairs of MMC building, improving market conditions, completion of road works, telephone connections and underground cabling lies another glaring issue - the absence of MMC chief officer Naveen L, who has gone on leave ever since D’silva has been elected and there is a fear that this fall out will only hamper development work and make it impossible for the council to meet the deadlines for all infrastructure work. The chief officer is ultimately the signing authority and while alternate arrangements have been made, there is no proper indication of the status of pending work, be it big city projects or ward specific issues as the IAS officer has not returned from his hiatus.