the goan I network
MARGAO
Will this over-five decade old imposing South Goa Administrator of Communidades building, standing tall right in the heart of the commercial capital ever receive a fresh lease of life.
It’s now three years since the 55-year-old building showed signs of cracking, with the ceiling crumbling and water seepage rampant every monsoons. Last monsoon, office staff and employees of the South Goa Communidade Administrator had abandoned the premises and moved to adjoining portion of the building as a stop gap arrangement after rain water wrought havoc in the office. In fact, the Communidade Administrator’s staff and officials must be anxiously waiting for the district Collector, South to allot space in the Matanhy Saldanha complex for the shifting of the office to the district Collectorate.
The moot question, however, remains unanswered “ will the Communidade Administrator and the communidade components initiate steps to protect the building from collapse for want of maintenance?
Components of Communidades from South Goa are indeed willing to chip in funds for the maintenance of the five-decade-old building, but they also want the Administrator or the government to intervene and recover the huge rent outstanding arrears from the occupiers of the building, mostly government department, running into lakhs of rupees.
That the Components of Communidades are ready to contribute funds for the renovation and maintenance of the building is evident by the fact that some of the communidades had even made a budgetary provision towards the maintenance of the building.
Says Savio Correia, president of Margao Communidade: “The building is indeed in a very dilapidated condition. Every monsoon they cry foul over the bad condition of the building during monsoon when there’s seepage of rain water, only to be forgotten after the rains. We the components are ready to contribute towards the maintenance of the building, but there’s no reciprocal action from the Administrator’s side.”
He lamented that the Administrator of Communidades, who is the trustee and custodian of the building, had never collected the rent from the occupiers nor revised the rent. That’s not all. Even the lease documents have gone mysteriously missing from the office for reasons best known to the Administrator, he said. “Let the Communidade Administrator recover the rent arrears, pegged around Rs 15 lakh and the components would chip in the funds for the maintenance,” Savio said.
That the issue of maintenance has been hanging fire for around half a decade now is evident by the fact that a tender was floated a couple of years ago for the renovation of the building. Work
on the building, however, did not commence after a lone bidder applied for the tender, sources said.
During the tenure of then district Collector, N D Agrawal, a three-member panel of representatives of components of Communidades was constituted to pursue the maintenance aspects. Savio said that members of the committee have quit the panel for want of support from the Administrator of Communidades.
To a question, the president of the Margao Communidade said the government has not much role in the whole episode other than forcing the Administrator to initiate proceedings for the recovery of the rent.
The Administrator of Communidade building was built around 55 years ago with contributions from the local Communidade bodies. While the construction work had commenced prior to Goa’s liberation in 1961, the building was inaugurated post-liberation and had been playing host to the affairs of the Communidades since then till date.
