Team Herald
PONDA: The Ponda Municipal Council is back in the news once again for wrong reasons with three councillors accusing the council of running a major labour scam amounting to Rs 20 lakh.
Addressing the media, Shivanand Sawant along with councillors Vincent Paul Fernandes and Vidya Punalekar alleged a major labour scam in PMC in which money amounting to Rs 20 lakh has been misappropriated in the name of non-existing 41 labourers whose attendance is fake and around ten councillors of ruling group were involved in it.
Sawant further alleged that the scam has been going on in the PMC since January this year. Though the labour attendance in the council shows 148 labourers, there are only 107 existing, which means the wages of 41 others have been misappropriated. He said he met the chief officer on the issue and even raised the same at recent council meeting but PMC did not consider it for discussion.
Despite facing shortage of funds, the PMC has sent a proposal to DMA to purchase a new Innova car for chairperson Radhika Naik, he further alleged. He further slammed the PMC for failing in cattle management by not taking steps to build a cattle pound at the land acquired at Bondbag.
Vincent Paul said his ward has been neglected. Old trees posing danger to motorists have not been cut despite demands from residents. He slammed that PMC for not providing him with labourers to clean the gutters.
Meanwhile, chairperson Radhika Naik rubbished the allegations as baseless and informed that there are 148 workers engaged by the council. In case councillors want, we can conduct an inquiry into the same. In fact, we need 20 more labourers for monsoon works and a resolution in this regard was passed two days ago at the council meeting.
Ponda Market Vending Committee and Garbage Cleaning Committee president and councillor Venkatesh Naik too rubbished the allegations saying there are 148 workers for garbage collection and other activities. If the three councillors have any doubt then they should hold a parade of the workers and confirm the same instead of levelling baseless allegations.
