MARGAO
An inordinate delay in the renovation and maintenance of the imposing Margao municipal building saw rainwater seepage in the heritage structure on Wednesday.
Water seepage was reported in the taxation section, besides the administrative section wherein buckets were placed at the leakage points. The building passage on the eastern side also reported leakage of water on the cupboard stacked outside.
The situation has only brought to the fore the moot point of maintenance of the heritage building by successive Councils over the last one decade.
The Shadow Council for Margao said important documents and public records are at severe risk of being destroyed, thanks to the lethargic attitude of the Council.
SCM convenor Savio Coutinho said the rainwater seepage is seen drenching the records in the taxation section and administrative section, which stores the birth and death records.
Condemning the Council for the lack of initiatives to stop the seepage of water into the building, Coutinho said: "We can see the staff collecting the water during duty hours, however after duty hours and during the night time, the water ends up soaking the files and records lying on the floor all over.”
He added: It is such a shame that the Council, with an army of technically qualified officials, who scrutinise building plans to the public, are found wanting to take measures to curb the seepage of water into their own premises.
He demanded that the records should be safeguarded from getting destroyed due to water seepage. "The wet and damp files and documents, especially the live birth reports, will cause severe hardships to the public in the future if the records get destroyed," he said further.
Coutinho called upon the new Chief Officer of MMC Gaurish Sankwalkar to check out the veranda area around the entire first floor, so as to gauge the situation first-hand.
