Team Herald
MARGAO: Of Rs 25 crore entitled under the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS), South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar sanctioned works estimated at Rs 24.83 crore.
Of the above amount, works worth Rs 13.64 crore have been sanctioned to the various assembly constituencies in South Goa, while the remaining has been spent on various government departments and projects.
Interestingly, Sawaikar sanctioned 161 projects estimated at Rs 7.69 crore during the earlier assembly term and since the February 2017 elections, he sanctioned only 29 projects estimated at Rs 5.66 crore.
While most projects appear to have been sanctioned in Ponda taluka along with Curchorem and Canacona constituencies, minimum works have been undertaken in the constituencies in Salcete. Works amounting to a mere Rs 1.21 crore were sanctioned in the eight assembly constituencies of the taluka with no works sanctioned in Velim, Cuncolim, Nuvem and Benaulim since the 2017 assembly elections and not a single work sanctioned in Navelim in five years.
However, Narendra clarified that he had sanctioned traffic signals for the Navelim junction but lamented that the Collector did not approve the project as it was not fitting in the scheme and hence no work was undertaken in the constituency.
“People from Salcete have not come up with many projects and hence when Camorlim panchayat approached me for solar power grid in the village, I sanctioned it,” he said. Incidentally, Rs 11.20 lakh have been sanctioned for the solar power grid.
Of Rs 95.03 lakh worth works undertaken in Margao constituency, Rs 77.35 lakh have been invested in the area around Victor Hospital with Rs 23.19 lakh spent on beautification of the area and Rs 54.16 lakh invested on a children’s park there.
Curchorem represented by BJP’s Nilesh Cabral has benefited the most as works estimated at a little over Rs 2 crore were sanctioned. While 10 works worth Rs 1.05 crore were sanctioned before the 2017 Assembly elections while only 3 works estimated at Rs 1,00,48,241 were sanctioned post assembly elections.
Sawaikar has helped create a lot of movable assets whose lifetime is quite short. In this context, he has provided 62 projectors, 40 copiers, 260 UPS, 42 laptops, 306 computers, 22 screens, 7 printers and 1 cyclostyling machine to various schools.
Besides providing CCTV cameras for Curchorem and Ponda, he has also provided three-wheelers scooters to 8 differently-abled persons in the constituency.
Some of the immovable assets include toilet blocks for three schools at Canacona, Dharbandora and Shiroda and steps for playgrounds at Bethora and Navoa.
