the goan I network
MARGAO
Call it a junket or a study tour, around 13 Margao City Fathers led by Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai are heading to picturesque Diu on Monday for a two-day advanced training session on solid waste management.
While the 13 councillors have confirmed their participation, no official of the Margao Municipal Council, including officials from the sanitary section, are part of the study tour, raising many an eyebrow in the corridors of the civic body.
Sources in the know said the 13 councillors are expected to take the early morning flight to Diu to participate in the two-day training session on advanced technology on waste segregation, beginning on September 25.
While the TA/DA bill on these 13 councillors is pegged at around Rs 1.40 lakh, the air fare to transport the City Fathers to and fro still remains unknown.
Sources in the Margao Municipality informed that the Municipality has already mooted a proposal to the government to sanction the air fare for the 13 councillors. Officials said the proposal is expected to get the government sanction early next week.
What, however, has raised many an eyebrow in the corridors of the civic body is that there’s no official going to Diu as part of the study tour. Sources in the know pointed out that more than the elected City Fathers, officials, especially those connected to waste management, are in need of training to ensure that the city benefits out of the training.
When The Goan called up Chairperson Babita Prabhudesai to shed light on the absence of any official in the team heading to Diu, she sought to push the blame on the Chief Officer Sidhivinayak Naik. “I had requested the Chief Officer to depute a concerned official in the team so as to gain first hand knowledge of the advanced technology on waste segregation,” she claimed, adding that there was no response from the Chief Officer.
When her attention was drawn to the efficacy of the previous jaunts or study tours undertaken by the City Fathers to study on solid waste management, Babita shot back “when I had led a delegation of councillors for a study tour, I had compiled a report and submitted the same to the Chief Officer for implementation. This time too, a report on the advanced technology on waste segregation will be compiled after our return home and will be submitted to the Chief Officer.”
