PANAJI
Panaji's city-fathers aggressively bickered on Friday, with several Opposition corporators storming out of a meeting chaired by Mayor Rohit Monserrate, accusing him of allegedly orchestrating the sale one of the city's oldest entertainment landmarks, Cine National.
While Opposition corporators including former mayors Surendra Furtado and Uday Madkaikar accused Monserrate and the municipal commissioner Agnelo Fernandes of dealing in underhand means to facilitate the sale of the centrally located cinema hall, which was originally built in 1934, the mayor claimed that the municipal corporation was only trying to raise money for the development of the city, while defending the compromise formula.
"There is an ongoing litigation regarding the National Theatre. It is before the Commissioner for hearing. We had urged the Commissioner to hear the case expeditiously and pass a decision on the issue. But the mayor and the Commissioner have opted to opt for a compromise even before the hearing is carried out. Which judge opts to compromise on such issues without even taking a hearing," Madkaikar claimed, alleging that the ruling panel was planning to sell crore of rupees worth of property located in the heart of the city for a song.
Furtado claimed that the Friday meeting had been called to pass a proposal, which empowers the Corporation to opt for a compromise on the issue.
Furtado claims that Opposition corporators were not even allowed to speak during the meeting and the matter which was listed on the agenda was not even discussed.
"They were not even allowing us to talk. They have not even put up our objections in the minutes of the meeting. They did not discuss the agenda. Just read out the agenda numbers, as the ruling corporators nodded in agreement," said Furtado, adding that he and Uday would "fight until we are alive to prevent the sale" of Cine National.
According to Monserrate, the "stupid" accusations levelled by Madkaikar were unbecoming of a former mayor and denied any wrongdoing.
"The National theatre issue has been pending in court for the last 13 years. It might go on in court for another five years or even ten years. CCP is in desperate need for funding. The outstanding over the last few years is around Rs 37 crore. Even if we want to plan initiatives for the city, we do not have funding," Monserrate said.
"We are hoping to settle the National theatre thing basically for an alternative means of income. He (Madkaikar) is accusing us of trying to sell property which is stupidity. We have approached the government to grant us a Rs 15 crore as a special grant for next year. We want to utilise the money for development of National theatre. He is just unhappy that it wasn’t done in his tenure," Monserrate further said, adding that the municipality was willing to allow all documents related to the Cine National issue for scrutiny, while also slamming Madkaikar.
"Everyone knows what Uday is like. He would have sold his building also if it was possible," said Monserrate. Uday was a key aide of the mayor's father and Panaji MLA Atanasio Monserrate, before the two fell out recently.
Monserrate claimed that the CCP had opted for a practical approach involving compromise, because pursuing the litigation path could take years.
"In interest of the CCP and residents of Panaji and our own coffers, we have resolved to enter into an agreement with the parties to withdraw the petition and see what is the best way we can work out. We put it to the Council for approval, which was granted today," Monserrate said.
He also said that, that the CCP's formal endorsement had now opened the path for a compromise between the two litigants, i.e. the promoters of the movie hall and the corporation.
The litigation between the CCP and the promoters of Cine National stems from a lapsed lease agreement. One of the oldest cinema halls along India's west coast (barring Mumbai), the movie hall has been in existence from the Portuguese era and the agreement between the local municipality and the promoters of the festival was also renewed post Liberation, but had lapsed several years ago.
