VASCO: With the victory celebrations over, the newly elected councillors of Mormugao Municipal Council have a long list of things to do before them for the Port Town.
The long pending works which the Vascokars are eagerly waiting to get streamlined need to be taken seriously into account by the newly elected councillor especially those 19 BJP-backed councillors from whom the Vascokars have high hopes.
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The immediate task the new councillors’ face is to take up all the pending works and unfinished businesses in the municipal jurisdiction without wasting any further time.
The responsibility of the new councillors is more tedious this time considering that the pre-monsoon works have not even started in the Port Town and that the COVID-19 cases across the State are rising rapidly.
The newly elected councillors will now have to slog themselves to first undertake cleaning of drains, clearing overgrown bushes, trimming overgrown dangerous branches etc as part of the pre-monsoon works and if it is neglected then no wonder the Port Town will see flooding this monsoon.
With COVID-19 cases increasing, the government is likely to impose strict restrictions on the movement of the people. The people will have high hopes from their respective councillor to come to their rescue and extend help during this pandemic, which is still aggravating.
Some of the major issues which the people are expecting from the new Mormugao Municipal Council are that it gets financially stronger and well-equipped with adequate equipment and work force.
There is another issue of regular releasing of MMC workers and employees salaries with other allowances on time. This will be possible if the new council rolls its sleeves and starts recovery of outstanding dues which runs in crores. Further the revision of house tax and other taxes which the municipality levy on the businesses and residential structures.
Another issue is of parking of vehicles. Clearing of footpaths and road encroachments from the municipal area. If the Herculean task is completed by the new council, which the people expect from them, then to an extent the parking issue from Port Town will be sorted out.
The CCTV cameras are non-functioning, open littering of garbage, etc also need to be sorted out by the new council. The piled up garbage dump at the Sada area needs to be treated. The old weak structure of the municipal building needs to be given attention and verify whether they have structural stability just to avoid any untoward incident.
Looking at some revenue generating and public utility projects in the municipal area, the new council will have the responsibility to do constant follow up of some major projects such as Fish Market Complex, KTC Bus Stand, Chief Officer’s Bungalow, Vasco Fire Station, Power House Project, the Varunpuri junction to MPT flyover, which the Vascokars expect that they will see it is completed during the tenure of this council.
These are some of the major things to do list, which the newly elected 25 councillors will have to consider seriously to accomplish, if they are really for the development and transformation of Port Town.
