the goan I network
VASCO
A dispute over the ouster of the Mormugao Municipal Council (MMC) chairperson Kritesh Gaonkar and his deputy Shashikant Parab has not only led to petitions before the urban development minister and the high court, it has also affected disbursal of salaries to the daily wage workers in the council.
In the absence of the chairperson and his deputy, the MMC daily wage workers have not received their salaries since the last few days.
According to MMC sources, cheque payments are made to daily wage workers on a monthly basis and one of the signing authority is the chairperson.
“The chief officer is the second signing authority and the jointly signed salary cheque is then given to temporary MMC staff.
“But in the absence of a chairperson, there was no second signatory to the cheque and this had led to anger among daily wage workers who had not received their salaries,” said the source.
MMC Chief Officer Agnelo Fernandes then decided to intervene in the matter and wrote to the Directorate of Municipal Administration (DMA) to approve another officer as a second signatory to clear the wages of the staff.
The DMA Director on Tuesday replied to the MMC chief officer that since the Accounts cum Administrative officer was on leave, the Assistant Accounts officer would be made the second signatory till finalization of the matter of no-confidence motion against the chairperson and the vice-chairperson.
When contacted, Fernandes admitted there had been an issue in salary payments to the staff of MMC.
“It has been resolved now and payments will be made by Friday. In the absence of the chairperson, cheques could not be signed and initially, we thought that this matter would have been resolved in a few days, but it’s more than 10 days now.”
“After the last hearing did not decide the fate of the no-confidence motion, I wrote to the DMA to approve another signatory for the cheque payments. The DMA approved the assistant accounts officer to be the second signatory and we have also informed the changes to the bank. The salary issue will be resolved by Friday,” said Fernandes.
