MARGAO
Like many of the councils, the Margao Municipal Council has also come under the rule of government-appointed administrators.
The administrator’s raj at the local self-government urban body, however, is not something new for the A-class local body. In its 50-year history, the Margao municipality was ruled by administrators appointed by the government for around 10 years in the last five decades.
In fact, as many as 11 administrators had presided over the affairs of the Margao Municipal Council in the 80s and 90s. And, when the newly-appointed administrator Prasanna Acharya takes charge of the civic body in a day or two, his name will be entered in the record books as the 12th administrator to preside over the civic body in the absence of the ruling council.
A glance at the scroll of honour put up in the office of the MMC Chairperson reveals that the municipality had come under the rule of administrator in 1981 and the government-appointed administrators ruled over the civic body for as many as five years till 1985.
During the five-year period, as many as five senior government-appointed bureaucrats, including A Venkatraman, J P Singh, S K Jain and M S Khan had presided over the affairs of the civic body.
For the next five years, from 1985-1990, the MMC came under the rule of elected Chairpersons, including Valmiki Faleiro, Ajit Hegde and Santosh Raiturcar.
However, after this five-year period, the administrators’ raj returned at the MMC, with the government appointing as many as seven administrators to preside over the affairs of the civic body.
The administrators’ raj, however, ended in 1995 when elections were held to the civic body. Since then, the MMC has been ruled by elected chairpersons and a council to date before the government appointed administrators citing the Covid-19 pandemic.
