PONDA: Suspecting a scam in the garbage collection to the tune of Rs 60,000 per month in Ponda municipality, three councillors have demanded an inquiry by the Directorate of Panchayat and the civic body to find out whose pockets the money is going into.
According to Councillors Shivanand Sawant, Vincent Paul Fernandis and Vidya Punalekar, the municipal contractor has been collecting garbage from Curti Panchayat using municipal labourers and vehicles. He also collects a monthly fee of Rs 60 per from Curti households for collecting garbage, but does not deposit it in either PMC account or in Curti Panchayat account. “This is a misappropriation of municipal funds,” they claim.
Addressing the media at Ponda on Tuesday, the councillors said that the municipal garbage disposal committee, in connivance with Curti Panchayat, is committing the scam.
Even as Sawant welcomed the cleanliness drive by the Ponda municipality in Curti area, he demanded an inquiry by the Directorate of Panchayat and the municipal council to find out whose pockets the money collected by the contractor.
When contacted, garbage disposal committee Chairman Venktesh Naik rejected the allegation of Sawant that his committee is conniving with Curti Panchayat and is misappropriating the garbage fees due to PMC.
“If allegations of misappropriation are proved by Shivanand Sawanth I will leave politics forever or else he should resign his post,” Naik challenged.
He said that the municipality had never appointed any contractor nor used its labour for door to door garbage collection at Curti. “PMC is only disposing Curti garbage in its garbage site.”
“PMC had long back provided free dustbins to the village and it is helping the panchayat as per the High Court direction to dispose the garbage at the PMC garbage disposal site, which is located in Curti jurisdiction,” he said.
Naik also said that the contractor collecting garbage in Curti “was appointed by some Curti locals who are paying him monthly fee of Rs 60 per household. The labourers for this work are employed by the contractor who pays them their wages. He is using PMC vehicles only to carry the garbage to disposal site.”
Besides, the contractor does not collect garbage from entire Curti, but only from Nagamasgid, Havelim and Sapna Parkm, he said.
