the goan I network
MARGAO
A kiosk which once housed the Mahiti Ghar in the commercial capital adjoining the Old Collectorate building caught fire on Thursday.
With the kiosk no more functioning the role as a Mahiti Ghar and the Collectorate shifted to the Matanhy Saldanha complex, the area has become a site for dumping of waste by unscrupulous establishments and citizens.
Even as the Margao fire brigade led by fire fighter Sanjay Desai was prompt in extinguishing the fire to the kiosk. Questions are raised as to how the area right in the heart of the commercial capital has become a site dumping waste.
Also, the Margao Municipal building and the Margao police station are located just meters away which have not acted as a deterred for some locals from dumping waste behind the kiosk. The littered waste around also indicates that municipal workers are not cleaning the area on a regular basis.
Fire personnel said that someone must have put fire to the waste, which later spread to the kiosk. They pointed out that the kiosk was empty without any records or equipments insides.
The Mahiti Ghar near the old Collectorate was set up over a decade ago during the BJP rule to issue a wide range of documents to the citizens at prescribed rates.
It later courted controversy following complaints by citizens that applications made to the kiosk for mutations were all stuck up in the Salcete Mamlatdar office, prompting then district Collector, N D Agrawal to display a public notice requesting citizens to directly approach the Salcete Mamlatdar office for mutations.
