MARGAO
The return of Deepali Naik as the Margao Municipal Council Chief Officer after a gap of a year has raised eyebrows amongst the municipal employees -- with whom the Chief Officer had a running battle during her previous stint in the civic body, culminating in the registration of FIR against 17 municipal workers including Employees Union chief Anil Shirodkar.Since the time Deepali Naik has assumed charge as the MMC Chief Officer last week, after replacing Siddivinayak Naik, questions have been raised in the corridors of the civic body by a section of the employees how to approach the emerging situation given the fact that the Chief Officer had got the 17 employees arrested after she lodged a complaint with the Margao police alleging outraging of her modesty.General secretary of the Goa Municipal Employees Union Anil Shirodkar said that Margao Municipal Council employees and workers find themselves in a piquant situation as 17 of their colleagues were arrested by the Margao police after the Chief Officer on February 26, 2014, had lodged a complaint against them. “The employees now plan to call on the Municipal Chairperson Babita Angle Prabhudesai to find a way out of the situation. Let the chairperson work out a solution. We do not want a repeat of February 26, 2014 again,” Shirodkar said.Inquiries have revealed that all the 17 employees are facing trial in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class, Margao. And, employees owing allegiance to the Employees Union now say that to add insult to injury, Deepali is again transferred and posted back in the civic body when the previous incident had created bad blood between the officer and the employees.The municipal employees and the Chief Officer had come face-to-face on February 26 evening in 2014 after they laid a three-hour siege outside the chamber of the Chief Officer Deepali Naik in protest against the delay in issuing the order to four employees promoted as per the Departmental Promotion Committee s recommendation.
