Team Herald
PANJIM: A day after directing the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP) to implement pay parking in the city, capital city’s MLA Atanasio Babush Monserrate has stated that Panjim will be made 100 per cent pay parking space.
After chairing a meeting of officials of the PWD, Electricity Department, WRD, Smart City project amongst others, Babush said that priority is to provide the residents of Panjim congestion-free roads and parking space when they are in the city.
“We intend to make Panjim 100 per cent pay parking. Discipline is first. Once the pay parking is implemented then it will be the responsibility of the police department and the transport department to ensure that the traffic is streamlined”, he stated.
A delegation of taxi owners met the MLA requesting to provide additional space for the taxis in the city. He asked them to cooperate with the authorities, especially the CCP as the local body is in the process of implementing pay parking in the city.
“We will identify the areas for taxi parking but we cannot provide space for all the taxis plying in the city. There have to be space for others to park. Just because the space is available for free people take advantage and block the space for the whole day. Through pay parking, this will get streamlined”, he added.
When asked about any specific directions to the departments, he said that most of the engineers wait for the politicians including the MLA and the councillors to come up to them with the works that should be done.
He said “I have asked to only do their work sincerely and effectively and then the rest of the work of follow up and everything will be done by the MLA.”
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Panjim MLA to review city’s infra during the monsoon
As pre-monsoon showers hit the State on Thursday, areas in the capital city were flooded with just 2 centimetres of rainfall. Responding to a query on how he plans to prepare the capital city for the monsoons, Panjim MLA Babush Monserrate said that for a permanent solution, the city will have to wait for the monsoons to arrive.
He said “The drains have not been cleaned and now if you question, one department will blame the other department. Therefore as a practical approach I will wait for the rains to come and when the areas get flooded, we will take the engineers to these places and get a permanent solution for them.”
