the goan I network
MARGAO
In a novel mode of protest over the four-year-old delay in building the multi-level parking project in the commercial capital, Madgavkars on Monday conducted a mock inauguration of the project at the old fish market behind the Margao Municipal building.
The mock inauguration was carried out at the hands of two minor school children with the hope that the project would see the light of day when the girl students attain majority.
The mock inauguration ceremony was conducted at the very place where the MMC had laid the foundation stone for the project on September 15, 2015.
Briefing the media after the protest, former MMC chairperson Savio Coutinho said the mock inauguration was conducted as a protest over the delay when the commercial capital is facing the burning issue of vehicular parking.
Coutinho demanded to know why the civic body had laid the foundation stone and at great cost if the municipality did not carry out its homework on the subject. “We have conducted the mock inauguration at the hands of the two minor
girl students, hoping that the facility will at least come up by the time they become major. It’s now four years since the foundation stone was laid on September 15, 2015, and we hope the facility will become a reality when
these children turn major,” he said.
Coutinho said the municipality will have to suffer the cost overrun given the increase in the rates of materials over the last four years. “The present lot of councillors will say they had inherited the project from the previous body, but certainly there cannot be any excuses for a civic body to justify the delay of four years to set up the facility,” he added.
Babita attributes delay in execution of project to GST and GSR
MARGAO: Margao Municipal Council Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai on Monday attributed the delay in the execution of the multi-level parking project in the city to the Goods and Service Tax (GST) and the Goa Scheduled of Rates (GSR), saying both the factors were beyond the control of the civic body.
She, however pointed out that since the civic body has now received the revised estimates of the project from the municipal consultant, the file will go to the PWD Chief Engineer for technical sanction. “Do you think any Council would sleep over an ambitious project such as the multi-level parking? The factors were simply beyond the control of the civic body to get the prestigious project executed in the city, which was mooted to address the burning parking problem,” Babita said, while reacting to the mock inauguration of the project carried out by a group of citizens in the city on Monday.
Babita, who has been presiding over the reigns of the Margao Municipal Council in the last four years, recalled that the project was tendered after the new council headed by her assumed office in November. She, however, hastened to add that the GST regime, which became a reality in 2016, threw the project haywire, with the contractor shying away from executing the project by claiming additional money. “The contractor was not ready to execute the project saying he would incur a huge loss as he was now liable to pay the GST. The GST calculations consumed a lot of time. The contractor was even once requested by the then TCP Minister Vijai Sardesai to take up the work, but he refused to execute the project citing GST,” she added.
The MMC chairperson further pointed out that when the civic body was ready to help the contractor to overcome the GST tangle, then came the question of GSR, with the contractors claiming the old GSR would only land them in big loss. “Revision of the GST rates was not in the hands of the civic body as the subject fell in the domain of the government. We did the follow up with the government on the issue and the GSR were finally revised earlier this year,” she recalled.
