Ward 19
With fairly good experience in council affairs, third time councilor, Tara Kerkar who represents ward 18 at present, has used all her skills to resolve the garbage issue by strictly enforcing door to door garbage collection in her ward. In the last five years as councilor, she claims to have completed development work worth over Rs 50 lakhs including construction of footpaths, laying of pavers and construction of two internal roads. Majority of the work was possible due to Dabolim MLA, Mauvin Godinho as it was his effort that bore fruit. The PWD spent over Rs 35 lakhs in her ward while the municipality shelled out approximately Rs 15 lakhs in the last five years.
Although Kerkar has made tall claims about development in her ward, ground reality is that despite having an effective door to door garbage collection system, garbage is still seen strewn around the area. Similarly, the issue of pending sewage connectivity is something that requires urgent attention as almost all storm water drains in her ward have turned into sewage drains which give off a foul odour. “Lack of parking and obstruction of traffic due to narrow roads can be resolved only with widening of roads. Similarly, sewage line connectivity will be my topmost priority in my next term as councilor,” Kerkar assured Herald.
Ward 18
Like ward 19, even ward 18 faces similar issues which have been pending for the last five years in the port town. Being first time councilor and then being elevated to an MLA candidate by the MGP in the last Assembly elections changed Babu Nanoskar’s fortunes. After the 2012 election where he was defeated by a narrow margin, development work began at a different speed. From zero development in the first two years, Nanoskar used his relationship with PWD minister Sudin Dhavlikar to swiftly complete various work like sewage line connectivity, overhead tanks under JICA funds, improvement of gutters and footpaths through the PWD. “The PWD minister helped me a lot and that is why I achieved success in taking up projects worth Rs 3 crore during the last five years as councilor while development work worth Rs 5 lakh was taken up simultaneously through municipal funds. My major achievement however, is sewage line connectivity as almost 60 percent houses in my ward have been connected with a sewage line,” he claimed.
