Team Herald
PANJIM: There was nothing ordinary about the ordinary council meeting of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP).
The opposition councillors, not only stormed out of the meeting hall and accused the corporation of allegedly selling a prime land asset, a contract staff member also lashed out at the corporation for not clearing salaries and failing to recover Rs 55 crore in outstanding tax. The employee, Gregory Jacques, who has also submitted his resignation to CCP, said he had written to the Chief Secretary asking for an investigation to be launched against the Corporation who he further accused of looking the other way when it came to such unresolved pending tax issues.
The issue between the opposition councillors and the governing camp of councillors arose when Panjim Mayor Rohit Monserrate wanted to move the discussions to another point that was listed on the agenda for the meeting.
Two former Mayors, Uday Madkaikar and Surendra Furtado respectively, asked that the Mayor and CCP Commissioner Agnelo Fernandes not to hurry with the discussions and go through the listed points of the agenda quickly. An argument ensued about how much time was given to discuss the agenda items and that the meeting was being held a day after Diwali. An irate Madkaikar slammed the documents that had the agenda details onto the floor and criticised the Mayor and the governing panel for not being interested in what the opposition councillors had to say. Furtado, along with opposition councillors Ruth Furtado and Joel Andrade echoed Madkaikar’s sentiments and stormed out. Furtado said Rohit was the worst Mayor Panjim had seen and similar insults followed. It is to be noted that one opposition councillor Nelson Cabral stayed on for the meeting that continued nonetheless.
Speaking to media persons outside the CCP hall, the four councillors accused the corporation of deliberately shutting down the opposition as it wanted to go ahead with its plans of settling the National Theatre land case that has been held up at the courts for years’ altogether. Madkaikar pointed out that the court matter was at a stage where the CCP Commissioner is now the official judge on the matter. “Instead of holding hearings, the Commissioner is intending to settle the matter directly with the concerned party. So many Mayors in the past have not taken this route as the land has great value and the end result should favour CCP and not the party concerned,” said Madkaikar.
The opposition councillors alleged that CCP wants to sell the building.
Furtado threatened to approach the court if CCP goes ahead with their plans. He also criticised CCP for being unable to resolve the drainage problems in the State and questioned why multiple consultants were being appointed for this issue.
However, the anti-CCP criticism got intense when a contract staff, Jacques, launched an emotional attack on CCP for failing to clear the October month salaries of the non-permanent staff even though it was Diwali.
Jacques, who has been working for years as a part-time employee of CCP and part-time employee of Goa State Urban Development Agency (CCP) is the community organiser who looks after the centrally sponsored schemes.
He expressed sadness at the state of daily wage workers who have not been paid. He began addressing the media after councillor Andrade questioned why CCP wanted to hire new staff or extend the tenure of certain existing staff.
“CCP has not recovered money that is owed to them in the form of outstanding tax and at this time is taking on extra projects like the third phase of the market. Why? CCP is owed Rs 20 crore from the market and Rs 35 crores from unpaid, house tax, signboard tax trade licence fees. What is the government doing about this,” asked Jacques.
