Team Herald
MARGAO: Bharatiya Janata Party, while daring Digambar Kamat to name the person who demanded bribe to get taxi permit near KRC Railway station, asserted that the credit for all development in the State in general and Margao in particular should go to the BJP.
Briefing media persons, Chandan Naik who is a member of the Road Transport Authority lambasted Digambar Kamat for making frivolous statements only to cover his failures despite being the chief minister for five years.
Reacting to Digambar’s statement at the function on Saturday that somebody had asked for a bribe of Rs 25 lakhs to give a permit to use the taxi stand inaugurated on the Aquem side of the KRC railway station, Chandan demanded that Digambar name the person who had asked the bribe or disclose the name of the person from whom the amount was sought.
“Digambar could not solve the taxi issue all these years even the five years when he was the chief minister and is now making frivolous statements just to divert people’s attention from his failure,” said Chandan while demanding that Digambar should resign as MLA if he fails to name the person involved within the next 48 hours.
He said the Margao Municipal Council gave permission only in September, he said. “Digambar failed to get this permission for years when his councillors ruled the council. The ring road is still incomplete as the area near Damodar College is to be cleared,” he said adding that the BJP was confident of completing this road.
Sharmad Raiturkar took umbrage to Digambar’s statement that the work was sanctioned only because he had raised the matter in the assembly and that somebody else was seeking to take credit for it and said the BJP is not in the habit of taking undue credit for works undertaken.
“Even though the collector had said only 13 taxis could be housed at the stand it is the BJP that pursued the matter and the Chief Minister came with the solution of giving permanent permits to all 43 taxi operators who would use the stand on rotation,” said Sharmad.
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Hot-mixing of Gandhi market road commences
Former Chief Minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat commissioned the work of hot-mixing the new market and Gandhi market roads on Monday morning. He indicated the work will be done mostly at night and disclosed that Gandhi market will be provided with a proper parking lot.
The work tendered for Rs 1.02 crore is supposed to be completed within three months and is expected to be completed before monsoons. The Police have been roped in barricading the road to stop people from parking their vehicles by the road side.
The contractor Umrah Engineering & Construction Pvt Ltd said they will seek police help in barricading the road while Digambar said the work will be done mostly at night when there is not much traffic on the road.
On Sunday work of repairing drains and covering them with slabs was started at three places, namely Karela near the Khareband bridge, behind ESI hospital and at Azad Nagar. “Nullahs will be covered at 10 places in Margao and work has started at three places,” he said. Digambar.
