MMC ‘wins some loses many’ in one-year reign

Pratik Parab

pratik@herald-goa.com

The Margao Municipal Council which was sworn in to power after a clean sweep on November 5, 2015, has completed one year in the office with the woman leadership of Babita Angle as chairperson. The people within the limits of Margao Municipal Council, with very high hopes gave an overwhelming majority to the Model Margao/Fatorda Forward combination. The Council, which in the past was also seen at loggerheads with the Local MLAs on issues concerning the city due to their different political affiliations, also did not have to face this situation. For the first time after decades the Council and the local MLAs belong to a common side. 

However, in spite of this rare feature, the performance has been good in some areas and needs lot of improvement in some important areas like the Sonsoddo and garbage management issue, traffic and parking issue and also on the revenue recovery and generations front. There have been several issues which couldn't see any great change in the one year of the service of the council. The Chairperson of the MMC has expressed satisfaction on the performance of the council given the fact that they are all new and has said that there is lot more to do. 

Herald decided to remind the manifesto points of the ruling panels and discussions the pursuit of the MMC to fulfill them.

The promises made by the Fatorda Forward Panel for Fatorda were and most of the promises remain either unfulfilled or mid way for completion. 

n Garbage Collection maintaining Segregation

n Efficient Traffic Management & Safer Roads

n Modern LED Lighting

n Better Public Health and Sanitation

n Parks and Gardens for Greener Fatorda

n Modernised Wholesale/Retail Vegetable Fish Fruit Markets

n Efficient Resident Welfare Associations

n Quality Drains/Gutters

n People Friendly E-Services

n Efficient Pre-Monsoon and Disaster Management

n Restoration of Heritage Structures

n Well-wishers scheme for refurbishment of wells

In addition to these, the Fatorda Forward and the Model Margao panel had aligned before elections and announced a joint manifesto which had the following:

n Traffic Management by raising infrastructure and removing illegal hawkers to ensure traffic flow.

n Garbage Management by means of proper segregation of garbage and to make waste management plant at Sonsoddo fully operational

n Public health and sanitation, refurbishment and upgradation of Hospicio

n Solution to the long pending Kabrastan issue

n Improvement of infrastructure at both the wholesale and retail fish markets and several others.

However, the major issue during the last election which was the Garbage collection and segregation issue along with the Sonsoddo issue is being dragged to such an extent, that the garbage mountain is rising higher every day. The Municipality, after so many years of planning and the last year of promises, has failed to get garbage segregated. The land fill site is yet to be set up by the Fomento Green and the fact whether the Fomento will accept mixed garbage for treatment in the future is a mystery. 

The election manifesto of the MM/FF combined spoke of E-services. But a lot remains to be done on the online services front. The people are still required to wait for an extra day to get a copy of the computer printed birth certificate and to come to the Municipality to get their works done. 

The waste management system, which was the core of all the problems of Margao, still awaits resolution as the council spent over a lakh of rupees going around the town distributing pamphlets asking for segregated waste collection and promised the same to commence in February 2016. But sadly the system of collection of waste needs lot of tweaks and balances right from source level.

The Chairperson of MMC, Babita Angle Prabhudessai, has, however, expressed pride in revealing that with the given amount and time and resource the achievements of the MMC have been great. "The MMC has been battling with revenue issues and I can now proudly announce that the process of file moving from table to table is over and we are now going to have Rs 3 crore of funds for wards’ developments," said Babita. 

She also told that it is for the first time that the Council on its own has bought a wheel loader which the MMC rented all these years. "Our Councillors have worked hard for the streamlining of garbage problems and the transfer stations are our achievements. This is the system which has moved the filth into bins keeping the areas clean," said Babita. 

She also was quick to add that it was difficult to undo the wrong practices of the former council and redo it properly which has been a task in itself.

The Shadow Council was formed by defeated candidates soon after the municipal elections.

 "The people within the limits of Margao Municipal Council, with very high hopes gave an overwhelming majority council to the Model Margao/Fatorda Forward combination. In the past, it was always the case where the council and the local MLAs, on having different political affiliations, were seen at loggerheads on issues concerning the city. For the first time after decades the Council and the local MLAs belong to a common side. In spite of this rare feature, the performance has been a big zero. You name a particular issue and you find it the same even after one year," said Savio Coutinho of Shadow Council for Margao.