MARGAO
Margao Municipal Council Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes appears to be in no hurry to forward the Rs 43-crore controversial bio-methanation plants project to the government for approval.
With the tenure of the elected body having ended and the Chief Officer’s office receiving a host of complaints on the bio-methanation plants, the CO is believed to have decided to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the entire gamut of issues concerning the project before forwarding the proposal to the government.
Sources in the know informed that the Chief Officer has begun a preliminary inquiry into a complaint that the Standing Committee of the Margao Municipal Council had given its approval for the Rs 43 crore project when the statutory panel has no power to deal with projects of such a huge cost.
Sources in the know informed that the Chief Officer is believed to have told outgoing city fathers that his office will forward the bio-methanation project to the Director of Municipal Administration for administrative approval only after going through the complaints made against the project.
He is believed to have told a delegation of citizens that his office will not simply brush aside the serious allegations made against the project before taking a call to forward the proposal to the government for administrative approval.
The Goa Forward-led outgoing council had bulldozed its way with the bio-methanation project, only to be vehemently opposed by the Congress and BJP-backed city fathers over the huge difference in the estimated cost of the bio-methanation plants prepared by Goa State Urban Development Agency (GSUDA) and Goa Waste Management Corporation (GWMC).
Though the proposal had received the backing of the council at the last meeting of the body earlier this month, outgoing opposition Congress and BJP councillors had made it categorically clear that they are only opposed to the cost of the plants and not the project, apparently pre-empting the Goa Forward to turn the tables against them in the ensuing municipal polls.
