MARGAO
Blame it on lack of foresight or the inordinate delay in filling up the land acquired for parking on the Old Market-KTC bus stand stretch, it cost the Margao civic body around Rs 42.51 lakh by way of rental charges paid to the South Goa Planning and Development Authority (SGPDA) for leasing its land to host feast fairs.
In fact, the audit prepared by the Indian Audit and Accounts department has slammed the civic body, saying the expenditure incurred by way of payment of rental charges to the SGPDA could have been avoided had the municipality developed the land acquired in 2008 for conducting feast fairs within a reasonable period.
The MMC tried to explain to the department that an initiative for hosting the fairs on the acquired land was taken up only in the year 2017, saying the council could not take up development of the said land earlier due to delay in reclamation and to obtaining requisite permissions.
The explanation, however, found no favour with the auditors who said the reply was not tenable as the municipality did not take steps for filing of land for over five years after resolving to do so way back in October 2012.
Officials in the know in the civic body informed that though the MMC had acquired the low-lying land in 2008 for the purpose of parking, the body never took up filling for reasons best known to the municipal authorities. Officials say the civic body had a golden opportunity to get the entire land filled up when the Sonsodo hillock was being cut to make way for the waste treatment plant, but the city fathers instead allowed the mud to go for filling of land at the Mormugao Port Trust.
A perusal of the audit report shows that the MMC had acquired the land in April 2008 for developing a parking lot for public purpose. In October 2012, the civic body resolved to carry out filling of land and construction of the parking lot through the Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA). The report, however, stated that the MMC carried out the filling departmentally after nine years in 2017 from the date of acquisition of the land in 2008.
“The delay in completion of work of filling has cost the municipality Rs 42.51 lakh by way of rental charges paid to the SGPDA for leasing of its ground/space for conducting fairs/feasts on four occasions during the calendar period 2015-17. The expenditure could have been avoided had the municipality developed the land for conducting the feast fairs within a reasonable period after it had acquired the land in 2008,” the audit said. The feast fairs were conducted alongside the city roads in and around the Old Market circle over the years before a city-based NGO Green Goa Foundation moved the High Court complaining of traffic jams caused by the fairs. The court then issued directions to the civic body to move the fairs on the adjoining SGPDA gorund.
