Mapusa's development story is one with strange twists and turns. At a time when Urban Development Minister Francis D'Souza stuck his neck out and said crucial files have been blocked by finance department, a different picture emerged. While almost all municipalities across the State have used almost the entire chunk of their allotted funds, Mapusa municipality surprisingly failed to use a major part of their allocation. Two issues need to be scanned here. One is the reasons behind the Mapusa municipality's failure to use sanctioned funds and secondly why the city is suffering on the developmental front.
Between April 2016 and October 2017, the Goa State Urban Development Agency received government grants of Rs 32.41 crore of which Rs 9 crore was spent for beautification and illumination of various Mapusa streets, Rs 2.5 crore was used for development of an approach road to the city and another Rs 2.40 crore to upgrade the Lohia garden in Mapusa. Similarly, in the last three years, the government had released Rs 2.53 crore as development grants to MMC, which was not utilized for any works.
Proposals are held back by the finance department either because there are technical issues or if they are mired in controversies. If there is no follow up from here, it effectively means that the funds will remained unutilized. The approach here is purely lackadaisical given the fact that options of rectification and resubmission should have been looked at. Serious efforts have to be made by those at the helm of the civic administration to plug loopholes and make fresh proposals. Responsibilities need to be fixed for deficiencies. There is certainly something going amiss. Either the proposals are faulty or the technicalities are not in place, or still further, motives behind the proposals may be suspect. Whatever are the reasons, there needs to be scrutiny. An entire city or a constituency cannot suffer for technical or administrative lapses of a few. Chairperson Rohan Kavlekar may have given his technical team a clean chit, but he needs to still come clear on why funds have not been utilized.
The municipality has utilized only Rs 40 lakh out of the Rs 2 crore released by DMA under Golden Jubilee Fund. This fund is actually meant to encourage civic bodies to come up with a revenue-based project with an aim of making it self-sustainable. The MMC was out of ideas and failed yet again to come up with any such project or a roadmap. A fraction of that amount was however spent on minor works.
Mapusa needs a turnaround. There is a lot of politics that is being played in the background where vote banks and voter sentiments play a crucial role. The local MLA will have to walk the tightrope and take hard decisions if Mapusa has to initiate development. It's a pity that the city is still struggling after having its own MLA as an urban development minister for five long years.
Between April 2016 and October 2017, the Goa State Urban Development Agency received government grants of Rs 32.41 crore of which Rs 9 crore was spent for beautification and illumination of various Mapusa streets, Rs 2.5 crore was used for development of an approach road to the city and another Rs 2.40 crore to upgrade the Lohia garden in Mapusa. Similarly, in the last three years, the government had released Rs 2.53 crore as development grants to MMC, which was not utilized for any works.
Proposals are held back by the finance department either because there are technical issues or if they are mired in controversies. If there is no follow up from here, it effectively means that the funds will remained unutilized. The approach here is purely lackadaisical given the fact that options of rectification and resubmission should have been looked at. Serious efforts have to be made by those at the helm of the civic administration to plug loopholes and make fresh proposals. Responsibilities need to be fixed for deficiencies. There is certainly something going amiss. Either the proposals are faulty or the technicalities are not in place, or still further, motives behind the proposals may be suspect. Whatever are the reasons, there needs to be scrutiny. An entire city or a constituency cannot suffer for technical or administrative lapses of a few. Chairperson Rohan Kavlekar may have given his technical team a clean chit, but he needs to still come clear on why funds have not been utilized.
The municipality has utilized only Rs 40 lakh out of the Rs 2 crore released by DMA under Golden Jubilee Fund. This fund is actually meant to encourage civic bodies to come up with a revenue-based project with an aim of making it self-sustainable. The MMC was out of ideas and failed yet again to come up with any such project or a roadmap. A fraction of that amount was however spent on minor works.
Mapusa needs a turnaround. There is a lot of politics that is being played in the background where vote banks and voter sentiments play a crucial role. The local MLA will have to walk the tightrope and take hard decisions if Mapusa has to initiate development. It's a pity that the city is still struggling after having its own MLA as an urban development minister for five long years.
