MARGAO
A group of like-minded citizens on Thursday have fielded six candidates under the banner of Citizen’s Choice Panel for MMC, promising that its candidates will be true representatives of the people of Margao and Fatorda.
The panel has the backing of citizens groups such as Citizens for Sonsodo and Goa with Love and will jointly fight the elections with the Shadow Council for Margao, which has also fielded candidates in certain MMC wards.
Candidates contesting on the Citizen’s Choice Panel for MMC include Mackenzie Michael D’Costa (Ward No 1), Lelcy Vaz (ward No 7), Francisco Augusto Fernandes (Ward No 10), Fabian Coutinho (Ward No 14), Anita Moratgikar (Ward No 24) and Kulsum Bi Shaikh (Ward No 25).
Addressing the media, Orlando Pacheco, representing Goa with Love said the Citizen’s Choice Panel for MMC has been floated by the citizens of the city and not by the politicians. “When we have panels floated by the politicians, the decisions are taken by the politicos than by the councillors. We want good candidates to come into the Council for the benefit of the citizens and the city,” he said, adding that the candidates finalised by the panel have worked with the people in their respective wards.
Roque Mascarenhas of Citizens for Sonsodo recalled how the group had got the government take up the work of clearing the Sonsodo legacy dump after filing a petition in the High Court. “We have extended our support to the Citizen’s Choice Panel for MMC to ensure that good and public oriented people come into the civic body,” he added.
Candidate Mackenzie told the media that he would try to make Madel-Mungul ward a model ward in the city, while candidate Francisco Augusto Fernandes has stressed on parking lots in the city to resolve the issue of parking.
The panel has promised to have a clean city with a systematic waste management system in place and to put a mechanism to provide all basic services of MMC at the doorstep of citizens.
While promising to expedite the process of clearing the Sonsodo legacy dump with efficient management and processing of day-to-day waste, the panel has assured to set up, allot, construct free parking and pay parking areas to de-congest the city.
“The panel will work towards making the city “open defecation-free” and to make the city the best city of the State in terms of hygiene, consumer service, parking facilities, beautification, drainages, etc, and to have a corruption free administration,” informed Gerson Gomes.
