the goan I network
MARGAO
Around a dozen-and-half Grade I officers have presided over the administration of the Class I Margao Municipal Council over the last decade, including N D Agrawal, Srinet Kothwale, Prasanna Acharya, Naveen L S (IAS) just to name a few.
And, not to mention, former Chief Officer Y B Tawde, who had the privilege of heading the Margao Municipal administration for over a dozen times, but the moot question that has remained unanswered is why are the CCTV cameras installed in each and every section of the Municipal building are defunct till date.
Installed at a huge cost around a decade ago, the Chief Officer’s chamber does not monitor the cameras any longer, for reason best known to the administration.
The cameras were put to use during the tenure of then Municipal Chairperson Arthur D’Silva, but then Chief Officer Naveen L S (IAS) had stirred a hornet’s nest when he had publicly questioned why the chairperson’s chamber was not connected to the CCTV surveillance network in the civic body.
Incidentally, successive chief officers have not shown the alacrity to get the CCTV cameras functional for best reasons known to them, raising questions whether the chief officers had no will to get the Municipal staff and workers under the CCTV scanner.
When The Goan contacted Margao Municipal Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai to shed light on the status of the surveillance cameras, she was candid in admitting that the cameras have been lying defunct for close to three
years now.
“Since the new body had taken over office after the 2015 Municipal election, the cameras had remained defunct. Sometime back, I had put up a note to the administration to get the cameras repaired, but in vain,” Babita said.
The MMC chairperson has made a forceful plea for the revival of the surveillance cameras since many files have gone missing from different sections.
It is an open secret that Municipal staff and employees frequently visit hotels and restaurants during working hours, and the section heads are unable to track the movement of the staff for want of the CCTV cameras.
