Julio D’silva
julio@herald-goa.com
Margao: Even as the Margao Municipal Council completes three years since its constitution shortly, there is nothing really great to speak about its achievements given the fact that though the council now has 25 councilors the taxation section continues to collect taxes based on the records when the council had only 15 councilors.Convener of Margao Shadow Council and former chairperson Savio Coutinho besides listing this as a major failure of the council also pointed out that the garbage collection in Margao continues to be a mess and further alleged that the council paid Rs 2.3 croreto Fomento without even signing the revised concession agreement.
He also pointed out that the dog shelter that was built when he was the chairperson in 2009 has not seen any change except for the increase in the money paid to the NGO managing it where incidentally MMC chairperson Dr BabitaPrabudessai’s husband is an interested party.“While earlier we were paying only Rs. 11,000 per month to the South Goa Welfare Trust for Animals to manage the 20 cages set up, at present the council is paying Rs. 50,000 per month to manage the same number of cages,” he said.
Besides, he pointed out that the council has not been able to do anything to address the parking problem of the city and even the multi storeyed parking lot proposed at the old fish market for which even a foundation stone was laid continues to languish in limbo.However Chairperson Dr Babita Prabhudessai and Vice Chairperson Tito Cardoso had their own defenses for the various lapses. Dr Babita said the taxation records of the council cannot be changed as it would create problems to the people but agreed that the council could give a unique identify number to identify the tax payers as per the ward they reside in.
Tito pointed out to the washed out MMC meeting on 13th August where the multi level parking was to be discussed and re-tendered as the earlier tender has lapsed and further said that the number of cages at the dog shelter will be increased shortly once it is shifted to the new location at Sonsodo.
Down at the wards too things are not very pleasant with bad roads being the constant complaint everywhere. In fact Piedade Noronha complained that the roads in her ward have been reduced to half the size and further said the garbage collection is at the most erratic with the garbage collectors not coming everyday even though Bapu Environmental Social Service Organisation is given the contract to collect the garbage here.
Terrence Barbosa the councilor admitted to the problem of the road but blamed it on the monsoons that prevented the PWD from completing the repair works. As for the garbage collection he said the problem has arisen as the MMC has issued notice to the private contractor to cancel his contract.
Laurel Abranches who had contested the council elections unsuccessfully in ward No. 10 said the councilor Glen Andrade is a doing good work. “However his failure is his inability to remove Ramsas Hazare’s kiosk which is posing a great threat to motorists in the night,” he said.
Glen Andrade admits to this failure on his part but quickly pointed out that he did succeed in demolishing the Rekha Bar that was another nuisance and also clamped down on the illegalities carried out at Manush’s place.
Councilors from ward Nos. 7 and 17 Jose Fernandes and Rupesh Mahatme respectively were praised for doing good work by the very candidates who had contested against them namely Gregory Dias and Elvis Fernandes.
JafarBudhani admitted that the roads and drains in his ward need to be repaired but pointed out that with all departments like the PWD and telephone using the drains to pass their ducts, the drains tend to get chocked.
