MARGAO
A host of civic issues plaguing Fatorda came to the fore at the Sunday Dialogues restarted by Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai on Sunday, with the MLA promising to take up with Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on the Margao Municipal Council’s decision to stop issuing NOCs for water and power connections under the Public Health Act.
In fact, the Fatorda MLA said the Margao Municipal administration has committed serious violations of the statute and the rules in force as the government had made a provision for NOCs under the Health Act to facilitate the poorest of the poor to get the basic amenities of power and water, and now sewerage connections. When a MMC official sought to point out that the people can now avail the facility as per a circular issued by the Chief Secretary, Sardesai said an uniform policy needs to be enforced across the State on NOCs for water and power connections under the Public Health Act.
An agitated MLA demanded to know whether the Municipality is collecting hafta from the hawkers, with citizens complaining of hawkers menace at the Opinion Poll Square and the place in front of the bus stand.
When the attention of the MLA was drawn to the plying of heavy vehicles through the narrow roads of Fatorda, the MLA gave two-week time to the police to implement the notification barring heavy traffic or face the wrath of the people. “Don’t blame the people if they take the law in their own hands and damage the vehicles. Act before the people take the law in their hands,” he warned, while also demanding action against abandoned vehicles alongside the roads.
On the western bypass, the MLA told officials of the National Highway to issue clear directions to the road contractor to ensure flooding does not take place at Mungul because of land filling.
Saying that citizens highlighted a lot of issues pertaining to stray cattle and dogs, besides having a library and a children’s park, besides parking, Sardesai said some of these issues are long-term which need long-term solutions.
He stressed on the need for the maintenance of the SGPDA fish market.
MMC CO Kadam skips interaction
MARGAO: The Fatorda MLA expressed his gratitude to the officials who made it for the Sunday Dialogues, but singled out Margao Municipal Chief Officer Rohit Kadam for his absence at the citizens interaction.
Even as he said that Fatorda will be indebted to the officials, who attended the public interaction on a Sunday, Sardesai said the MMC Chief Officer had sent him a message saying he would depute engineers for the interaction.
“Maybe the MMC CO could not attend the meeting since I had sent the invite to the officials only on Friday. But, we expect the Chief Officer to make it for the Sunday Dialogues at the next round on Sunday,” he said.
Sardesai added: “The Chief Officer had called for an interaction with citizens, which was later cancelled. His absence at the Sunday Dialogues has only thrown up a question whether the CO wanted to have his interaction only with a specific number of people. There’s no politics behind my Sunday Dialogues as evident by the fact that even BJP councillor Sadanand Naik has attended the interaction.”
