NESHWIN ALMEIDA
neshwin@herald-goa.com
The Margao Municipality for the first time is dawned with carnival decorations and giant masks. The old heritage Margao Municipality Building looks like a structure in Rio de Janeiro with all the drapes and colourful decorations from Mardi Gras, which has no significance with the traditional Goan Carnival. We decided to visit this office based on people’s grievances that the Margao Municipal employees are never in their seats after lunch and stall all kinds of business or activity in the city. The common grouse of the people is that the tax department, sanitation department and administration section is unavailable to the public post lunch at 2pm until closing time at 5.30pm.
“Forget the employees, they at least are stuck in red-tape and corruption but even the Chairperson is unavailable till 5 pm or in the second half and if you call her, she leaves you a message to leave the file or documents with a particular peon which is unacceptable,” explained Liro D’Costa who told us that this is his fifth trip to the municipality and his work is pending because the staff just disappears.
Also to our shock, the corridor that has the Chief Officer and Chairperson’s offices to the left aisle always had the Chief Officer’s secretary’s counter to the far end of the corridor. But it has been moved in front to barricade entry to the Chief Officer and Chairperson’s cabin.
“Why do you want the Chief Officer? You tell me what work you have and accordingly I will tell you if you need to see him. For the Chairperson also, you have to tell me why you require to see her. Accordingly I will tell you if she’s there or not there,” says the Chief Officer’s secretary, Vibha, who has been told to filter people coming to visit the municipality with grievances.
The bio-metric system to maintain attendance records is on but not in use. The employees in the taxation, administration and sanitation departments are not to be found in their seats or anywhere in the building.
Senior Councillor, Tito Cardozo explains the Administration and Tax Officer is given additional charge of Mormugao Municipality and he works in Vasco for three days and in Margao for two days and since he’s the head and he goes missing, all the employees under him also seem to disappear stalling people’s documentation and other work.
“The ATO has additional charge. Some municipality employees claim to go for BLO work to update the voter’s card list and then there are some who just disappear with nobody to question them and that’s the sad reality of the Margao Municipality,” explained Tito Cardozo.
Margao Municipality Chairperson Babita Angle, who herself is a practicing pathologist and is available only half the day at the municipality as she still practices pathology asserted,” I am aware the bio-metric system is not functioning and I believe the Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik is to be blamed for the lacunae and he should pull up the municipal staff. This is his duty and not mine.”
Similarly, Naik who’s unavailable at the Municipality when we visited on Tuesday, February 09, 2016 on the last day of the Carnaval, we are told, has gone for a meeting. The Chief Officer was previously involved in an employment scam when he was posted at the Animal Husbandry Department. Naik himself, since deputation on December 09, 2015 puts his phone on block mode the minute he steps out of the municipality and is unavailable to anybody with his phone getting cut after a single ring.
“I implemented the bio-metric system because of this. I even broke the back of the so called municipal employees union in Margao. The grievance then was that the employees were not in their seats and were busy doing personal work and hence, I had pulled them up by implementing this system. I hope the Chairperson gets her wisdom quick and implements the system again,” asserted former Municipal chairperson, Arthur D’Silva.
Former municipal chairperson, Savio Coutinho was the first to start the bio-metric system unsuccessfully. He stated,” I installed the system but faced flak from the union and had to withdraw it but the subsequent chairperson re-installed the bio-metric system. But the key here is to use the attendance while disbursing salaries or deducting salaries and marking absent or late comers or else the bio-metric system is useless.”
“The Margao municipality in terms of employees is in a shambles. There are officers dozing in their seats. Wrong orders are being given without proper inspection and there is rampant corruption in issuing NOCs to new constructions. I hope the municipality corrects this,” explains Roque Pinto from GOAMAR, an NGO that looks into illegal constructions.
