MARGAO
Margao's heritage structure, Camara Municipal de Salcete, lying in ruins at the entrance to the city at Old market, may come under the scanner yet again as the South Goa district Collector has ordered a re-survey of the old and dilapidated buildings dotting around the commercial capital.
Indeed, as the Margao Municipal team of engineers fan out to the corners of the city to identify the old and dilapidated building as per the collector’s order, one questions which may come to haunt the civic body and the powers that be is “ how will the civic body go about the Camara Municipal de Salcete building in the latest survey of dilapidated buildings.
For, the Margao Municipal Council and the government alike, which had only paid lip service to the heritage structure over the years, will have to take a call whether to include the heritage structure in the list of dilapidated structures or leave the building as it is or take up the responsibility to restore the heritage structure to its pristine glory.
Close to a decade ago, an attempt was made to raze down the heritage structure on the plea the building is old and may cause disaster. Heritage lovers from Margao and outside foiled the attempts by unscrupulous City Fathers to bring down the heritage building. Instead, the heritage lovers had made a fervent plea to the Margao Municipal Council and the government alike to restore the building.
Since then, however, the Portuguese era Municipal building has been lying in ruins, with the building showing signs of crumbling down.
Around half-a-decade ago, an attempt was made by the previous Council and the government to restore the building, but land and ownership issues scuttled the move, leaving the building to its present state.
Way back in 2009, the Margao Municipal Council had adopted a resolution to restore the old municipal building as well as the ancestral house of nationalist Dr Francisco Luis Gomes after acquisition. The land acquisition proceedings never took off for reasons best known to the civic body and the powers that be.
Former Margao Municipal Chairperson Savio Coutinho, who had taken the resolution to acquire the building and restore it to its past glory, said the proposal was never seriously taken forward by the Civic body or by the MLAs.
“If the proposal for land acquisition was taken forward, the building would have been acquired at a cheaper price. Now the rules have undergone changes making land acquisition a difficult proposal”, he said.
He added: “I do not know what stand the MMC or the MLA controlling the Civic body will adopt vis-Ã -vis the old municipal building. Let us hopefully wait for the powers that be to take a positive decision to restore the building”.
Reacting to the Collector’s order, Coutinho said the first and last such survey of dangerous buildings was conducted way back in 2012-13, wherein some buildings were identified, and notices were issued to the owner's/occupants, but thereafter not much action was seen.
“However, in a couple of cases, we found real Estate developers taking advantage of the notices issued; and clearing their hurdles by demolishing fairly stronger buildings, and setting into motion their plans for redevelopment", Coutinho charged, while blaming the authorities for dancing to the tunes of vested interests.
