Team Herald
MARGAO: The Margao Municipal Council (MMC) appears to have woken up from their slumber. They held a special council meeting on Friday to discuss and resolve the ulitisation of the grants of the 14th Finance Commission, which, if not used before March 2020, will be returned back. The grants amount to approx Rs 27 crores.
On potential projects, the meeting saw discussions that ranged from how to handle its garbage problems to setting up the right type of infrastructure that is needed at this point and for the future. There was also a request to have a treatment plant in one or two wards for the handling waste in a decentralized manner.
However, BJP councillor Rupesh Mahatme questioned whether that proposal would get the required clearances from various bureaucratic levels in time.
Another councillor Suchita Malkarnekar criticised the former MMC chairpersons and sections of MMC technical staff over the delay in using the funds. “What was MMC doing all these years? Why wasn’t it used earlier?” she asked.
Responding to this, former MMC Chairperson Babita Angle said, “So many proposals were sent to the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) but all were sent back by the technical section as well as the administration.”
Further, a group of councillors and the MMC chairperson, informed that the Director of Municipal Administration had pointed out during his recent visit to MMC, that the proposals had never reached the DMA’s office, which created a huge uproar against the technical section of the MMC.
Later, MMC resolved to get slabs for rainwater and other drains in their jurisdiction. Further, in a last-ditch effort, they decided to get back some of the files of previous proposals and convert them into work orders in order to utilise the finance commission’s funds.
However, till the end of the meeting, except for as list of 6 or 7 works which were prepared earlier, a couple of proposals prepared by councillors and the resolution to procure slabs for drains, MMC wasn’t able to make up their mind for any major noteworthy project for their citizens.
