Sanguem Municipal Council’s ambitious rest house project at Sanguem stands incomplete even though work has commenced one-and-a-half year ago.
The work on the construction of the rest house was undertaken by the Sanguem Municipal Council at the cost of Rs 1 crore, which was incidentally sanctioned to the municipality under the Golden Jubilee funds of Goa Liberation Day.
It is pertinent to note here that all panchayats and municipalities in the State of Goa were allocated funds by the State government to undertake development projects in their respective areas to mark the golden jubilee celebration of Goa Liberation Day in the year 2011. The funds were reportedly to be used within a period of five years from the date of allocation.
After having several discussions, Sanguem Municipality had no better option and opted to utilise the funds for the construction of the rest house near the cemetery at Sanguem. However, whether the municipality does really need this facility and for what purpose it essentially would serve remains a big questioned.
Incidentally, Sanguem town has as many as three government rest houses within a radius of three kilometres. While one is owned by the Water Resources Department, the other two are owned by Forest Department and Irrigation Department respectively. Again, at no given point of time, these rest houses remains fully occupied and may well be considered as white elephants for the respective departments, considering the cost of maintenance and the personnel employed to man these rest houses.
All the three rest houses are also made available to the public at nominal costs with prior booking at the head office, except on days when the rest houses stands booked for official purposes or to conduct any government functions.
Even after one-and-a-half year the work of internal plastering of doors and windows and also that of electrifications remains incomplete.
Former Councillor Queroz Cruz, during whose tenure the work commenced, said the municipality has not fixed any deadline for the completion of the project at the time of the allocation of the tender. Cruz also informed that as present, road to the rest house passes by the side of the cemetery and the municipality has proposed to construct a new road to proceed to the rest house.
