MARGAO: Town and Country Planning Minister Vijai Sardessai, who visited Margao Municipal Council (MMC) on Monday did not hide his displeasure at the functioning of the council and reprimanded several officials for dereliction of duty and being oblivious of duties in their own sections.
He also promised a dedicated chief officer within a week, look into the vexed parking problem of Margao, solve Sonsoddo issue, stressed the need for streamlined survey of houses and commercial establishments, besides giving directions for repair of the flyover.
“I am not happy with the functioning of the MMC as the administration has become rusty and is even beyond remediation,” he said, castigating the officials.
Vijai promised such unannounced visits in future and pulled up quite a few officers for not being aware of things happening in their own sections.
Referring to news reports on government apathy to the flyover, he discussed the issue with the PWD engineer and Traffic Cell and it was decided to keep the flyover closed for vehicles for 24 hours on any day after November 18, to carry out the repairs.
When Hillary D’Souza raised the issue of MMC suffering because of not having a dedicated chief officer, Vijai promised to give a dedicated chief officer within a week.
Former Chairperson Savio Coutinho raised the issue of MMC not collecting taxes from people whose houses or business premises are not assessed. Vijai questioned the officials about this and opined that the very use of the term “loyal taxpayer” should have rankled the officials to set things right.
MMC Chairperson Babita Prabudessai and councilor Rupesh Mahatme’s contention that a survey would be undertaken of ward No. 14 as a pilot project by a private agency was also questioned as the survey was required of the whole town.
As a month-long drive carried out by the MMC resulted in only 84 applications for assessing for tax purpose it was decided to let each councilor to undertake the survey of their area with any private agency. “The government can pay for the work but there should be accountability of the work and a proper survey should be undertaken,” he said.
Various other issues were raised by individuals like over taxation at Aquem, failure to demolish encroachment at Pedda, delays in issuing income certificate with Vijai instructing the concerned officials to do their work within 24 hours failing which people were asked to contact him personally.
Dr Babita raised the issue of cattle menace and Vijai reminded her that it was the responsibility of the MMC to set up a cattle pound and agreed with Rajendra Azgaonkar that in the interest of the traders hawking or street vendors should not be promoted and the drive against them should not be for decorative purpose but taken up seriously.
